Thread: Problems with defenders steering sector shaft

if youve got a beefed up drag link that can happen same same if youve got wheels with run out issues and a shot steering dampner.

Ive seen between about 10 fail in that manner they dont always let go up near the sector most of the ones I've seen failed lower down or shattered the teeth.

Blcknight: what do you mean by "wheels with run out" issues? Not properly aligned?

If you've already seen 10 of these failures happen and I have seen 3 in Argentina, isn´t that too many cases of sector shaft failure?
I phoned Adwest and they told me they did not know it had ever happened to a vehicle that was not used for competition.

Isn´t this worrying
What can we do to prevent it from happening again?

Thanks
Stgo

if when your drive the wheels shake the steering wheel violently left to right thats run out.

no I dont consider 10 in 20 odd years to be excessive especially when some of them were heavily used units and some were in military vehicles and most were well and truely past the 10 years old mark.

The ADF currently have a rodum out on them to get the whole fleets boxes changed after one failed almost immediately after coming back from rebuild. preventative maintenance will usually trap most of them IF the box is overhauled and inspected correctly and at reasonable intervals.

Sorry for the delay: Thanks blcknight
Here I come again with another dumb question: which is the "draglink"? The steering rod that goes behind the axle in LR Defender's? The same one that often bends when hitting big rocks with the tires?

Most of the LR Defenders in the streets in Argentina are >10 years old by now. What sort of preventive maintenance/checks do you suggest could be carried out in order to prevent this sort of catastroffic and unexpected failure of the sector shaft? Dissassembling the steering box and using some special product to detect hidden, invisible cracks in the steel of the sector shaft? What sort of test would you recommend?

Thanks for your help, this stuff is really important, we appreciate it.
Cheers,
Stgo

Originally Posted by SG1

Sorry for the delay: Thanks blcknight
Here I come again with another dumb question: which is the "draglink"? The steering rod that goes behind the axle in LR Defender's? The same one that often bends when hitting big rocks with the tires?

Most of the LR Defenders in the streets in Argentina are >10 years old by now. What sort of preventive maintenance/checks do you suggest could be carried out in order to prevent this sort of catastroffic and unexpected failure of the sector shaft? Dissassembling the steering box and using some special product to detect hidden, invisible cracks in the steel of the sector shaft? What sort of test would you recommend?

Thanks for your help, this stuff is really important, we appreciate it.
Cheers,
Stgo

thats the tie rod the drag link goes at the front.

the easy way to remember it is that the drag link drags the first wheel around and the tie rod ties the 2 wheels together.

the only thing you can really do to spot it for an internal failure is strip and inspect the box theres a handfull of tests that will detect surface cracks that are invisible to the naked eye

1, dye pentetrant test
2. UV fluro die test
3. magna flux test
4. ultra sounding
5. xraying

as a rough rule of thumb every time your box leaks or you replace the hyd hoses (which should be about 5 yearly depending on k's/use) on the power steering box you should be stripping it down and doing a visual inspection. so far Ive caught a couple of similar failures on gearbox shafts when IVe done overhauls using nothing more than good cleaning and a strong diffused light.


If I can get my hands on a "failed" test piece I can try to show you what you're looking for.

Dave,
Ive got a leaky 4 bolt box - not bolted to a vehicle ATM. The one on the 130 leaks as well, keeps the front right rust free.
Any clues on is it worth stripping and resealing the spare box, any tips.
Im thinking of stripping it before buying a seal kit. I vaguely recall someones theory that a leaking box usually has a flogged sector shaft and seals wont last long?

Steve

Originally Posted by SG1

. They also said that for competition rovers, they use a reinforced steering box from the D2.

This isn't a straight swap, incase anyone is thinking of trying it.

The input spline is smaller, but the column section can be made up by joining 1/2 a D2 and 1/2 a Defender lower column together, but the mounting bolt hole positions are different. It requires (not very easy) chassis mods to do.

Originally Posted by roverrescue

Dave,
Ive got a leaky 4 bolt box - not bolted to a vehicle ATM. The one on the 130 leaks as well, keeps the front right rust free.
Any clues on is it worth stripping and resealing the spare box, any tips.
Im thinking of stripping it before buying a seal kit. I vaguely recall someones theory that a leaking box usually has a flogged sector shaft and seals wont last long?

Steve

sometimes yes, it depends on why its leaking.

if its just contaminated and busted up seals then no
if its the support bearing failed or the shaft out of skew then yes. the seals wont last long if you just replace them a year tops if your lucky.

sounds like an exclelent opportunity to demo stripping the box and showing how to do a crack test using dye penetrant