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When I got my C700, it had a sticky spot when turning right, but it would come and go. The other day I went to drive it, and that sticky spot got worse, and hasn't gone away. If I try to move it past that point, the pump squeals as though I turned the wheel all the way to where it's actually supposed to stop and kept trying. Any idea what's causing this? I have zero experience working on this type of power steering assembly, but am a pretty competent mechanic (Millwright by trade).
I figured I'd ask you guys before I rip into it, so I don't disassemble something I don't have to. I did top off the fluid, but the fluid that's in there doesn't look all that great. Mechanically everything looks fine. I don't see any physical blockage with any of the linkage.
2nd the grease to kingpins may need to apply some heat to get grease to flow into king pins
Originally Posted by Destroked 450
First thing I'd do is jack the front wheels off the ground and then grease the king pins
Now that you mentioned it, I went through and greased the crap out of everything I could see. Seems like after that is when the problem got worse. I haven't tried jacking it up yet to see what it's like with no weight on the axle.
For anyone that's interested, here's what happened. I isolated it to the steering box by disconnecting the tie rods, and down the line until the only thing left was the steering box. It was covered in many years of oil weepage, and dust. I could clearly see that the bolts on the side of the gearbox were loose, and cause the oil level to be reduced to basically nothing over time.
After cleaning it up, I removed the lower bearing housing plate on the bottom of he worm gear, and sure enough.. there were some metal shaving in the fluid. (Pic says it all). By the way.. if you're anything like me, this pic make you want to go prospecting really bad! Lol
I flushed the gearbox out with gas, several times until it all looked clean. Put it back together, filled the unit with 90wt and gave it a shot. It now steers like it should, and almost feels new. I know that the gearbox needs replaced, and I'll do that, but for now I can use it on the farm.
I hope this helps someone down the road, wondering what's going on with their steering on a C series.
Thanks for the update. I've got a bit of play in the box on my 63 c850. I've been planning to swap it out for the one off the parts truck Destroked was kind enough to sell me a while back.
I really ought to look up the seals for it and replace those it while I've got everything apart.
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