L185 steering box rebuild
I got the new steering box sector shaft today, I had ordered the steering shaft repair kit. I got all the new parts from Kumar Bros USA on ebay.
I removed the bearing seats, seals and cleaned up all the old parts. I installed the bearing seats and new seals they went in easy, so I greased up the bearing and slid the steering shaft into the box, slid the tube down on to the box and checked to see how many shims I would need. Well I had to use all of the shims in the package plus the old ones , so I figured the bearing seats were not all the way in so I pulled the shaft out and tapped on the seat some more also the seat in the steering tube. I put it back together and It was still tight. I pulled it out again just to try to get the seats in more and to make sure the bearings were in the right way. The seats were in as far as they would go and the bearing were in correctly. I tried again, 8 shims stacked under the tube and it was to tight, 10 shims still NG. So I pulled it apart and put the old steering shaft and nut in ( the old nut has a few marks in it so I just cleaned them up) it went in perfectly 4 shims and it spun nicely with no play. I slid the sector shaft in and adjusted it. The steering shaft turned smoothly so I put it in the tractor and reassembled everything,greased up the frontend and filled the steering box with Amsoil 75-90 severe gear oil. The tractor steers great now! Unfortunately the $140.00 steering shaft that I bought is no good, I emailed the seller to se if they would exchange or credit me.