Superior info folks,.....as usual.

 

I did a quick tape off of the toe in this morning and there is a whopping 3/4 to 5/8 difference. Widest in the back of tires of course. Thanks for the instructions and tips you folk have given me to get this more in line with specs.
I also got the gasket set for my leaking steering gear box yesterday so I can hopefully clean this phase of updates up this weekend.
Any words of wisdom on replacing the steering box gasket kit ???
The kit from Macs came with a gasket for the cover on the "adjusting screw" cover plate, 2 gaskets for the plate/cover at the end of the steering tube as well as 3 sets of gaskets/shims, in different thickness and colors. The 3 blight blue are the thickest, the white are medium thickness and 3 off white that are the thinnest. In addition a 1/4 thick fabric/felt like gasket/ring. I see the felt seal, and the 2 plate gaskets on the exploded view in my shop manual but not any details on the shim.gaskets. Whats the scoop with these buggers??

 

That's a LOT of toe in! That would contribute greatly to your death wobble as well as wearing out the tires in nothing flat. The death wobble would occur due to one tire steering straight while the other slid sideways trying to steer the truck to the opposite side. If the sliding tire suddenly got more grip than the rolling tire the truck would dart sideways. If you over corrected slightly the two tires would then reverse steering roles and the truck would dart to the other side, the "death wobble". With the correct amount of toe in each tire is steering very slightly towards the opposite side, the net result is the truck wants to drive straight ahead.

 

Thanks for all the detailed info X !!
Anything special with the gasket/shims or is it the obvious " put it back together as it comes apart" thing.
Thanks a lot
John

 

I've never rebuilt a stock box, but I recently learned from Number Dummy that the box should be lubed with a special grease, not rear end lube. (do a search on ND's user name and grease for the part#) That should solve a lot of the leaking problems.

 

Ax,I participated in that thread you mentioned.The original specified steering box grease is a Motorcraft product.According to Bill(N.D.):

XG1C (replaced C3AZ19578A) .. Steering Gearbox Grease / Available from Ford.

MSRP: $3.43 // FTE sponsor PARTSGUYED.COM price: $3.08.

According to Straightline,a rebuilder here in Cali,any quality moly chassis grease-but NOT wheel bearing grease-is fine . Me,I used the Ford product,after the 90 wt. I was advised to use promptly leaked out.

Steve

 

I don't have my shop manual here at home to look it up, but I still think that the older F-1 boxes were supposed to take gear oil. Many of the old gears originally had oil in them. I don't doubt that they switched to grease to reduce leakage in the later years, though. My '65 Falcon was originally packed with the grease you speak of. In either case, I still swear by John Deere Corn Head Grease. I and many others have been using it for years and I swear by it. It will flow back between the gears and into the bearings better than the thick grease that Ford used does and it's thick enough that it won't leak like gear oil does. I use it in all kinds of low speed gearboxes. This is what it was designed for.

As for the shims, if memory serves, those shim gaskets are used to set the preload on the tapered roller bearings on the worm shaft. You can get really technical about using an inch pound torque wrench to check the amount of force required to turn the shaft and verify the preload, but you can get them pretty close with patience and a light touch.

The first step is to inspect the worm shaft bearings and races. They both need to be in good shape with no excessive wear or pitting. If they're good, then assemble just the worm shaft into the gearbox without the sector shaft. No need for grease at this point. Just put it together dry. Grease will alter the "feel" you'll be checking for. Use a bunch of shims when you install the cover. The idea is to intentionally use too many. The worm shaft should be sloppy and have end play. Now pull the cover back off and pull some shims out. Just a couple, though. Reassemble the cover and recheck. It should be less sloppy, but still have end play and excessive movement. Repeat this procedure JUST UNTIL you have it set to where there is no end play or looseness and the shaft feels controlled and smooth as it is turned. You want to remove shims slowly and sneak up on this. Once you think you have it, add a medium shim back in and verify that the end play comes back. If it does, then you were at the correct zero preload. Remove the medium shim you just put back in and ALSO remove a THIN shim. Removing the thin shim will put a thousandth or two of preload on the bearings. The shaft should still turn easily and smoothly, but there should be just a HINT of effort required to initially start the shaft turning. If there is any doubt, it is better to err on the side of a little too loose than a little too tight. It's kind of difficult to describe the procedure, but once you start messing with it, you'll get the idea pretty quick. Once you have determined this magic number of shims, tear it back apart, pack it liberally with grease, and put the whole thing back together with that number of shims. The only other adjustment is the sector shaft mesh screw. You do NOT want to get this set too tight or you'll wear the gears out in a very short period of time and they will be junk. Turn the worm shaft as far as it will go one direction and then count the turns that it takes to get to the opposite stop. Go back the other direction exactly half way. This is where you want to set the mesh. Adjust the screw JUST UNTIL the backlash is removed from the gears and then stop. Make sure that the gears do not get stiff or bind anywhere through the range of motion. Again, it's better to be a little loose than a little tight.

 

Numberdummy PM'ed me with the same info on the grease. I followed the Shop Manuals instruction pg 331- Lubrication.... " STEERING GEAR CASE ,add SAE 90 gear oil to the steering gear case as required. Before removing the filler plug,clean all dirt from around the plug " So....I did and it also leaked almost all the way out. This is why I bought the gasket set... . I think I will get the grease and cut my self a break from the gasket rebuild for now. Thanks for this time saving info. I guess the shop manual has its flaws after all.

 

I also read page 331. But like any "learned experience", it's possible a TSB came out suggesting using a grease instead of 90wt. But I don't know.

 

Any suggestions or tricks to making the tie-rod adjustments??? I am guessing I pull the cotter pins and end stud nuts , drop the connecting rod, loosen clamp bolts, adjust the rods in a bit, re-install, re-measure and so on until I reach proper toe-in.???? Is there an better way?????

 

With the truck pulled straight ahead, do one side at a time. Pull the cotter pins and undo the castelated nuts dropping the tie rod off ONE side.

Loosten the clamp and then unscrew the old tie rod end from the tie rod while COUNTING THE NUMBER of turns until it is disconnected. Then screw the new tie rod end in using the same number of turns, and reconnect it. Then go to the other side.

To check the toe in, I used two dowels with a center clamp on them and measured at 3 and 9 oclock positions (front and back at axel height) on the inside of the tire. You want the back to have 1/16 to 3/32 more of an opening than the front. BUT be sure that each time you make an adjustment on the tie rod (by twisting it) you roll the truck back about 3 feet then back into place. It will take very little (like 1/2 twist of the tie rod).

If the ends of the dowel are touching the inside of both tires at axel height in the front, you should have a gap in the back between the tire and dowel about the thickness of a 3/8 cut washer on one side.

 

If you mean to adjust the toe, no need to remove the cotter pins, castelated nuts, tie rod ends from the steering arms or anything else. One tie rod end is left hand thread, the other right hand where they screw into the tie rod. Loosen the jam nuts on the tie rod and turn the tie rod to change the toe setting. Turning it one way will shorten the distance between the tie rod ends giving less toe in, turning it the other will lengthen it giving more toe. As Julie said it doesn't take much turning to change it. Once you have it set, retighten the jam nuts and you are done.

 

Oh shoot! For some reason I thought you were replacing them! No no no, AX is right you don't need to take the nuts and pins out!

DA DOY!

 

Believe it or not,.... I was hoping that was why the rod ends were L/R threaded. I guess a pipe wrench will do the trick to turn/adjust the connecting rod?????

 

Just so others will understand: A connecting rod is an internal engine part that "connects" the piston to the crankshaft.
The long rod in the steering parts that "ties" the steering arm on one side to the steering arm on the other side so the wheels both turn together is called the tie rod.
Once you back off the jam nuts the tie rod should turn easily. A small pipe wrench can be used to aid in adjusting, but avoid scarring the tie rod.