Remove the pitman arm from the center link. The pitman arm is the arm that connects from the bottom of the steering box to the steering cross link. It changes the rotation of the steering into the side-to-side motion of the front wheels. I have a matching pitman arm on the replacement box. If you don't have the pitman, you'd remove the pitman from the box, and attach it to the new box. This is a little more work.
First remove the stud nut. I used a little heat from a propane torch to expand the metal of the arm from the stud. Then I hammered a pickle fork separator into the joint. This worked easily with the help from the torch.
Incidentally, I once did this for a friend, and we didn't have a separator tool available, but I had an idea. I heated the pitman arm end up the same way, with a torch. Then I took an ice cube and set it on the end of the stud that goes through. The center link stud compressed from the localized cooling and literally dropped right out! No hammering. It was neat. Isn't science wonderful?
The box unbolts by 3 long bolts that go from the outside of the frame, through the frame, through the inner frame rail, and into tapped holes in the steering box. This is a pretty simple remove and replace. But I have one more trick to show you.
The threaded holes in the manual box were loaded with dirt and gungo. You should never jam bolts into threads like that. You're better than that. Normally I'd run a tap through the holes to clean them out nicey-nice. I suspected these were metric threads, and I don't have any metric taps. So I just made thread-cleaning bolts.
Clean the bolt threads with a wire wheel. Secure a bolt in a vise. Then fire up an air-powered cutoff wheel, and cut a groove into the threads, along the axis of the bolt, starting at the end. In a pinch, you could use a hacksaw, but it's a little more difficult. I have done it this way. I love my pneumatic cutoff wheel.
It only has to be like an inch long. Do this to all the bolts, one groove each is fine. Man, these crap photos are BUGGIN' ME!
Now when you thread the bolts into the cloggy steering box threads, the dirt gets scraped into the slot in the bolt, just like it's the flute in a tap. You can insert and remove the bolt a couple of times, cleaning out the groove in the bolt each time, to get all the dirt out. This usually works great, and the bolt will not be appreciably weakened by the small groove.
Class dismissed. Maybe I'll redo the photos if I have time.
3 comments:
Images 1 and 3 are good but 2 has a glare and the others are blurry(you seem to have noticed that).
I can't wait to see this when it is done. Not a drop of gasoline. Better than a Hybrid. Haha you should build one for me. Considering I turn 16 this Thursday, the #1 reason I will not be able to drive are the gas prices. These is just no way I will be able to afford it for more than a few months. What will gas prices be in two years? $6 a gallon? Oil prices? $180 a barrel?
Anyways the following is an "End of the School Year" message to Mrs.K or maybe I should say "K". I don't know a better way to contact her, so if you could tell her I wrote something to her that'd be good.
I'd never have the nerve to say this to you in person, and I bearly do here, so I better type fast. I never got around to thanking you(and everyone else) for the food today(and for pie-day and the bowling trip. So I apologize for that and say thank you. I also apologize for "looking at you like you have three heads" in the words of Mrs. Fen. I had absolutely no idea what you were talking about at first so I was confused. I forgot to bring in money today to pay you for the bagel you got me on the day of the Algebra regents. If you don't mind, I'll take that as an early birthday present. I would also like to thank you for helping me this year, it was rough start but turned out being the best year I've ever had. I think it would have been much different if you had not been here. Finally, if you're curious to why my bus was so late today(you probably aren't but I'm saying it anyway)was because of the following. First, they(the Bus "Company") called my Mom and wanted her to pick me up. She said no. That was at 11:30. They then forgot to get a busdriver to come and get my at 11:45. They remembered at 12:40 and sent out someone to get me, but she went to the middle school in the village, not the high school in the town. So, by the time she finally figured out she was at the wrong place, it was 1:10. She picked me up at 1:30.
I apologize(lots of apologies) for taking up so much space on this page.
Luckily I noticed on the side that you two were going out for your 3rd Anniversary Dinner, so I assume its your Anniversary. In that case, Happy Anniversary!
Kieran, Thanks for your continued interest in this project. I will pass this info on to Mrs K. She told me she thinks you have really improved this year.
You seem like a great person, and smart too. Just be yourself and people will like you. And of course Happy Birthday bro!
Thanks again. I would think of something more interesting to say but I am really tired from a long bike-ride.
Post a Comment