Steering box rebuild with a difference

[johngwalsh]

I decided to redesign my little kubota's steering box assembly.Being in Ireland parts are either very hard to get or very expensive so innovation has had to play a big part in my restoration process.Instead of buying a steering kit I have machined my existing steering rod to take a taper roller bearing where the bottom bearing sat, I built up the shaft with weld where the upper bearing and lip seal sat and turned it down to take a sealed ball bearing and new lip seal.I then turned down a teflon bush to act instead of the upper tube seal and tapped it down 10 mm below the top of the tube to allow me to install a lip seal.I have 5.5mm ball bearings on order and should be here in a few days so hopefully it should all be fully assembled in the next week.Ill upload a few pic's soon.

 

[gurn]

Sounds interesting, can't wait to see the pics.

 

[Kytim]

I'm with you gurn, cant wait to see the pics.

 

[johngwalsh]

Cant seem to upload pics from my computer to the forum so this should let ye see the steering rod with weld and machining.I'll put up all assembly pics when ball bearings arrive in the post.
https://picasaweb.google.com/113605...aSteeringBoxRefurb?authuser=0&feat=directlink.

 

[Stumpy]

Wow! I though about building a better seal into mine but ultimatly decided it was too much work considering the other problems I've got with the machine. Besides as long as I have it it's going to live in a dry barn. I hope that shaft is still straight after welding! Very interested to see some more pictures of it.

To make it easier to for you to share photos host the pictures on a website like postimage.org and then post them here. Be sure to select the resize option (640x480 or 800x600) for easy viewing on forums.

 

[johngwalsh]

Thanks for the tips matt ill try that...I had nothing to loose before i started as before i started out the shaft had a very slight deflection in it.This was caused from the disintegration of the bottom bearing.you can see in the photo of the main body that the steering rod had actually started wearing away the base of the box.I welded the steering rod in stages with the main shaft wraped in a damp rag and had a bucket of cold water next to me as the heat spreads really quick.I have assembled it with out the worm gear and the shaft turns well,the teflon bush takes most of the run out and should be tough enough to last for a few years.

 

[johngwalsh]

Well the 5.5mm ball bearings arrived in the post yesterday so I assembled everything today and after a little bit of time trying to get all those balls into the worm gear its all together and working.I slacked off the the screw for taking out the slack on the gears and I can turn the shaft by hand without the steering wheel on.Delighted.Here is a pic with it fully assembled on the bench.Its just been degreased and sanded so a little bit of paint should tidy it up nicely.One more item off the to do check list.Tomorrow I'm going to try out Vic's trick with restoring the poor faded steering wheel.