Corvair box adjustment

[Keeper]

Okay so I finally got my steering to the point I can actually hook it up (I had been waiting on a U-joint)

The box was sent to me "loose" so I could make sure it worked. Anyway I followed the instructions on how to adjust it, but things just do not seem right.

Here is what is happening:

If I remove all the play in the shaft to the point that it will not actually move in and out when I turn the wheel, I get a very hard grab in the middle.

If I back it off until I get a "slight" catch in the middle, the shaft moves in and out up to 1/4 inch. To me there is something wrong.

Anyone have some suggestions?

This is an aluminum reversed corvair box. I have a cast iron non-reversed one sitting on the shelf if I need to figure something else out.

If it is needed, I can make a video!

 

[2old2fast]

Steering shaft or sector shaft moves'in&out'?

dave

 

[RPM]

Here is a quick how too. Back off the little adjusting nut then back out that little set screw all the way. It won't come all the way out. Now the big lock ring back it off. The big nut with the lock ling snug it down pretty tight, this adjust the worm gear shaft and its bearings. If you can turn it with your fingers it's too loose. Now lock that big lock ring down. On to the little screw. Center the steering shaft, that is turn it all the way one way and count the turns and turn it back. Should be about 5 1/4 turns. Now center that 2 3/4 turns from lock. Now tighten that little screw down tight, then lock the nut. Here again if you can turn this by hand it is too loose. There should be definite tight spot in the middle to keep the car going straight down the road.. You might have to turn the shaft off to one side and tight down on that little screw to get a tight spot if the gears are worn some.

See those ads where it turns nice and free = worn out. Seen the ads that say must be adjusted on the car = means he don't know how to adjust it.

If ya still have trouble call me or email me and I send you the pages from the GM service manual.

 

[2old2fast]

Well, there ya' go!!

dave

 

[Keeper]

Thanks Ron, thats what I was hoping to see.

I am off to adjust things, I will let you know how it goes.

 

[GAB]

If it will help, here is what the inside of the box looks like in kind of an exploded view:

Here is another view where you can see why the small adjustment screw cannot be backed all of the way out. Also you can just see that the gear teeth on the sector shaft are slightly tapered. That is what you are doing when you turn in the small screw is reducing the clearance between the sector shaft and the recirculatiing ball nut's gear teeth

 

[Keeper]

Thanks GAB, that will help when I put them all back together.

So things did not go quite as planned. Pics to follow.

 

[Keeper]

Okay after an following Ron's directions I started with the large retaining nut, after seeing it was hand tight, I lost complete confidence in the box. So out it came and its a good thing....

Here is my "Rebuilt and reversed" corvair box. I bought this from Anchorboy46 (Mikey) on the HAMB, turns out he is now on the bad sellers list for selling crap.

Anyway here is the inside of my box:

Looks like nothing inside was cleaned prior to reverse/"rebuild"

Seem to be missing something here, I guess I know what the noise was:

This is where I started getting a little pissed: Not sure if this is common, but half that damn tooth is corroded away.

Luckily I had bought a "spare" when I seen it come up in the classifieds, its not reversed, and its steel, but it was pulled from a working hotrod.

So I tore the other one apart to see if I can at least make one good box. The internals of the steel box are in great shape and I should be able to piece one together.

A little rust, but at least the teeth are not rotted away:

Then I noticed that all the parts are not interchangeable!!

So now I will have one good box, and one box I will have to find more parts for......


If anyone wants to see full size photos of these, they are all in here:

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/index.php?album=bucket2&page=11

 

[putz]

That sucks out loud when somebody went through the work of reversing it and not rebuilding it.

 

[RPM]

Man that is a shame, to get ripped like that. Looks like they sat in a wrecking yard for years full of water.

The worm gears do not interchange as you have already found out.


Hopefully you'll post this over on the forum were you bought it from, so folks there will know whats going on also.

 

[Keeper]

Man that is a shame, to get ripped like that. Looks like they sat in a wrecking yard for years full of water.

The worm gears do not interchange as you have already found out.


Hopefully you'll post this over on the forum were you bought it from, so folks there will know whats going on also.

Yeah it sucks, he is already listed as a bad seller now. Apparently this is not the first time he has pulled this.

At least I can make one good box out of all of this.

Do they make replacement bearings for these anymore? If anything I could work the bearing cage a bit to allow for more bearings to be placed back in. Obviously I cannot use the rusted out gear there, wonder if they can be repaired...hmmmm

 

[RPM]

After looking at the pictures some more, even the pitman shaft and gear in the cast box don't look great. There is a lot of rust and pitting. Try wire brushing it or even glass beading it, to see exactly what you have there.

Another thing in rebuilding these boxes is the bushings. The brass bushing in the housing are know to wear pretty bad. We usually have to replace them when we build a box. Clean everything up and try the pitman shaft in the bushing to see if it feels pretty snug. We also see the pitman shafts wear against that bushing if water got it in.

We have a 5 gallon bucket full of worn stuff from Corvair boxes. We have to take 2-3 boxes to get one good one and then you have a lot of junk left over.

 

[Keeper]

Thanks I will clean it up tonight. It looks mostly like surface rust, nothing to deep.

Here is the lesser of the two:

I will take more pics once its cleaned up.

 

[2old2fast]

I don't know if it's still the case , but Bearings & seals were available from CLARK'S CORVAIR & CCR in cal. That gear looks very suspect , think I'd be looking for another box, JMHO

dave

 

[Keeper]

So I cleaned that gear up a bit. There is some pitting, but nothing that will prevent me from using it for now. I will keep a look out for a couple of those pitman arm/gears.

The steel one will most likely be reversed at some point and replace the aluminum one, I was not aware that the the aluminum one was prone to cracking!

So just how much grease do you pack into the box?

 

[Youngster]

The steel ones crack too. I have changed out 3 cracked steel boxes. They crack at the knit line buy the big spanner nut. The most common reason is because of a column that is not mounted securely in the car.

Ron

 

[2old2fast]

If your using "gun grease" use something that will cling to the upper bearing, other than that , fill it up . There's 3 used corvair boxes on e-bay now . I may have a steel box somewhere in my stuff, but it's a long shaft . I'd let it go cheap if you're interested, but I'll have to hunt for it !!

dave

 

[Keeper]

Thanks Youngster, The column is pretty stout and I have a U-Joint installed as well, should help things out.

I will be using wheel bearing grease. I guess I will just pack it until I run out of space!

Thanks for the offer on the box, I will keep an eye out up here, shipping would get me coming my way.

 

[Youngster]

The u-joint will take a lot of the stress off the box. All three of the ones I replaced had solid shafts and only one had a fire wall suport.

Ron

 

[rb61069]

BUYER BEWARE when dealing with Mikey Daniels in Crockett Texas AKA Mikeyshotrods.com and Houston County Welding. He is on NTBA site also. He has 2 tbuckets that he claims to have built himself. If you seen his work you would know he didn't build those. He claims to have built over 30 tbuckets. It more like scammed 30 people, by selling them parts. He tried to sell me a 55-64 chevy rearend telling me it was a Ford 9". I did buy a old K&S Kustoms body that is a CCR knockoff. He tried to sell it for CCR's price.Big price difference!!!