Thread: Worn sector shaft

I bought a new steering box including drop arm from LR Direct for AFAIR GBP 299 based on my experience rebuilding one 25 years ago. I hope it will be plug and play.

I am still waiting for it but IMHO you would save yourself a lot of skinned knuckles if you buy a new one.

It is not only the sector shaft that wears and some of the other things can make the box a write off eg the worm, the roller, the piston.. All in all if the box has alot of Ks then it would be better to buy a new one.

Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

the bottom bearing changed from a babbit bearing to needle roillers in mid 1992 on RRC and I presume the rest. Going by the VIN numbers mine has the needle rollers.
AFAIK RRC, Disco1 and Defender are all the same box. They certainly were back in the 80s.
Regards Philip A

I believe it's as simple as 3 bolt top-cap boxes being bushing and 4 bolt top-cap boxes being needle bearing. Make sure you don't count the bleed screw or preload bolt in the 3/4 count.

Originally Posted by PAT303

Some advice,do your swivel bearings and correct the pre-load.IMHO thats the reason the bearings colapsed. Pat

which are the swivel bearings?

anyway after getting hold of a nice 2nd hand sector shaft, i pulled it all apart only to find the bearing surface on the worm shaft badly worn, drats, I consulted an english guy who works from home doing power steering repairs who told me that the wear on the worm shaft is very common, that it can be ground down but that there's not much point as it is soft material in the 1st place and that for the last 20yrs he has been ignoring it and has had no problems with the boxes he has serviced for his customers, hahaha, maaan, anyway considering the car made no steering whines or grinds or noises at all and it steered nicely and straight and this whole thing for me started as a simple seal replacement i am just going to install the new needle rollers and sector shaft and be done with it, if it fails down the road ill go looking for a new box for 299 pounds (by the way Philip can I have a contact for that source at that pirce?)

The needle rollers in my case both failed in the bottom end, the curved end, the end without the manufacturers markings/numbers and according to a few power steering specialists I have consulted it is always this part of the bearing they see has collapsed (apparently the bearing failure is VERY common, just about every box that comes to them due to the leaking seal - despite often not making any dubious noises - ends up with these bearings failed), well in my opinion the bearings themselves are either poor quality or they were poorly selected for the job.

If you want to reco the shaft it needs to be re hard chromed, a process done by guys who re-manufacture hydraulic rams. They rechrome, then grind back to original size rather than "metal paste" etc. The main issue is the bottom seals fail and hold dirt/water in the area and it rusts. It's caused as the bushes wear the shaft can move eccentrically and open the seal allowing the crap in.

(by the way Philip can I have a contact for that source at that pirce?)

LR Direct.com
Part Number QAF 500110 GBP 299.98 excl VAT freight GBP 89.94 .
This was not the cheapest option in their catalogue as they always offer about 3 or 4 quality and price options, but is made by ADWEST and I am assured by answers to my Email questions includes the drop arm and the drop arm is the ball joint type.
I have had dealings with them quite a lot and found them good BUT you have to know the part number of what you want which involves research on Google or elsewhere.
I have not got it yet so I am waiting anxiously to ensure it is what I want, but I am quietly confident.( Like a Real Estate Agent who is always confident until he isn't)
BTW the freight of GBP 89 includes AFAIK from looking at their site up to 150Kg ! so you can add stuff. I added several other parts .
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by clubagreenie

If you want to reco the shaft it needs to be re hard chromed, a process done by guys who re-manufacture hydraulic rams. They rechrome, then grind back to original size rather than "metal paste" etc. The main issue is the bottom seals fail and hold dirt/water in the area and it rusts. It's caused as the bushes wear the shaft can move eccentrically and open the seal allowing the crap in.

This is what I was initially planning on having done but about 1/2 of the power steering places I contacted when looking for another shaft advised against it saying the new chrome comes of relatively quickly if it is used with needle rollers, this type of chrome is suited to bushes. Ignoring the advice I went to one the chromers with my shaft asking for the job to be done and was told the same story, not a good idea if I plan to use needle rollers against the chrome. Then I came across a guy who had 3 very nice looking shafts.

And thanks for the [IMG]file:///C:/Users/OFFICE%7E1/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/OFFICE%7E1/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.png[/IMG]LR Direct.com details Philip, much appreciated.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

I have found when pulling one down about 20 years ago that the sector shaft bottom area is a "dead" zone with little circulation. Philip A

Hi All

I wonder if a modification could be made to the four bolt box, to improve the flow of the lubrication to the bottom bearing.

If a hole was tapped into the casing, just below the bottom bearing and a oil return line was inserted there, that would allow the oil to return back to the reservoir.

Has anyone done this, or care to comment on this idea?

Cheers Arthur

I've only had to re-chrome the seal areas never had it wear up at the bearings so that's probably on the money. We always go hold of it at seal leaking time, mind you it was 14-15 ears ago so those I did are getting very long in the tooth now too.