VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 1927 Tourer - Steering Adjustment Help Needed

I am trying to take up excess play in the steering of my 27 tourer (recently purchased as an older restoration), and having problems! My workshop manual (1928 edition, but looks the same) says I can take out the end play in the Pitman Arm Shaft by removing the housing cover to the steering gear case and removing one or more paper shims. I can't remove the cover because of one stud that also goes through the Stationary Tube bracket - even when the nut is removed, the bracket remains held by the stationary tube which passes out of the bottom of the steering box and passes through a clamp at the base of the bracket. This prevents me pulling the bracket off sideways. Any suggestions? Does the stationary tube slide out the bottom of the steering box (mine won't budge), thereby freeing up the bracket?
This is my very first post to this forum, so I hope I'm asking the right questions!!

G Day
Martin

If you email me direct I may be able to help you out as there maybe other things affecting the steering. Lots of people think that there is too much play when the steering wheel move back and forth but if you try and shorten this up you will end up chasing the car back and forth across the road as the skinny tyres follow the ruts and ridges in the road.

TWIN4

Hi,

The following discussion applies to the 1928 unit, however they are basically the same as the 1927 except for the addition of the ball bearings in 1928.

1928 STEERING BOX EXPLODED

Thanks Twin4 and Cheradioman for your responses.

I'm not sure if I explained my problem sufficiently in my previous post, so I'll have another go!

I do suspect that this is a steering box adjustment issue, because although I have tightened up the adjustment plug at the bottom of the steering box, and there is still play in the Pitman Arm (i.e. significant movement in the front wheels and Pitman Arm without any corresponding movement in the steering wheel).

The manual says to remove the steering box cover and remove one or more shims (paper gaskets) to tighten up the contact in this direction.

The cover has four bolts which must be removed. However, one of them is actually a stud and only the nut comes off, leaving the stud protruding maybe 20mm. The stud does two things. Firstly, it holds the "Stationary Tube" bracket against the side of the steering box cover once the nut is in place (it actually prevents the cover being removed without first removing the bracket).
The bottom of the bracket does a right angle turn at the base of the steering box, and is clamped onto a small tube that protrudes out of the bottom of the steering box. So, the bracket is effectively held in two places at 90 degrees to each other, so BOTH must somehow be released in order to get the bracket off and therefore to remove the steering box cover!

Secondly, the inside end of the stud is not screwed into metal (i.e. inside the steering box), but instead holds the steering box adjustment plug tight when the nut on the stud is tightened (at least, that is what I think it must do). It does this by means of a scalloped section of the stud which passes over the adjustment plug inside the steering box.

The stud cannot therefore be withdrawn without removing the adjustinng plug at the base of the steering box. I have tried to back this plug off as far as possible, to see if I can get it past the scalloped stud, but the bottom end of the bracket stops the plug from being able to come far enough out of the bottom of the steering box.

The bottom of the bracket is clamped around a tube that protrudes from the bottom of the steering box, through which pass the throttle tube, the spark advance tube and the horn wire. From the diagram in my 1928 Workshop Manual (which I am presuming is much the same as the 1927), this tube appears to be the "stationary tube". Maybe this tube slides out somehow, thereby releasing the bottom of the stationary tube bracket and allowing it to be removed sideways? However, I can't shift it, and don't know if it would slide out the top of the steering column or the bottom, or even how far up the steering column this tube goes?

Chevradioman (Ray) posted a link to a previous discussion with a picture of a 1928 steering box in pieces. However this picture doesn't seem to be the same as my car, as there is no evidence of a stationary tube bracket.

Your experience would be most welcome and any thoughts you have about my problem!! For the record, I will be going away for a couple of weeks this Saturday, so will not see any emails sent after 23rd Sept until after 11th October - so please excuse lack of immediate reply to anything sent during that period.

Regards, and thanks again!
Martin

Martin, I have just overhaulled my 1928 steering box and it still has some play that would require some engineering to get rid of. There are 3 sources of play.

The first is the worm (steering wheel shaft) moving up and down. This can be eliminated by tightning up the thrust bearings with the threaded internal nut at the bottom.

The second is removing the paper gasket on the cover plate. This only adjusts the sideways movement of the pitman arm and is not a major source of movement.

The third, and the most difficult, comes from the mesh of the gear into the worm. The only way of moving these closer to each other would be to machine an ecentric bush for the gear and have the gear shaft offset in the housing.

I did not have any problems disassemling the box. Removing the 4 bolts holding the pressed steel plate allows the gear to be removed. Unscrewing the internal nut on the bottom allows the worm and steering rod to come out.

Good luck

Back from hols and ready to get this steering sorted out! I managed to remove the steering box cover by sliding the stationary tube up the steering column (er, tube!), thus allowing the stationary tube bracket to be pulled off over the protruding stud. (Note that my '27 steering box is different to DaveT's '28 description above due to the presence of the stationary tube and bracket (does your '28 have automatic spark advance, not manual??)

There are around 12 thin paper gaskets (shims) under the cover. I managed to separate these into 6 individual gaskets, with the rest being stuck together in 2 clusters of maybe 3 gaskets each. Not sure how to separate these as they are firmly bonded together.

Is it possible to make replacement gaskets?

If I have all the gaskets in place (which is how it was when I pulled it apart), the total thickness is 2.4 mm (I measured this with a micrometer), so presumably this means that I can get up to, say, 2.0 mm adjustment by removing most of the gaskets. Presumably, this will force the gear to engage more closely with the worm.

Is 2 mm a significant adjustment in this direction? Could it solve my problem? (DaveT doesn't seem to think that this adjustment counts for much, but it is recommended in the workshop manual, so I'm a little confused. Dave, your suggestion of an eccentric bush etc is pretty scarey to a person of my severely limited engineering ability!!)

If it's not, can I take the gear out and rotate it 180 degrees to engage teeth which have not already worn? (It appears that only a portion of the gear teeth are ever engaged in the worm.)

What is a reasonable amount of play to aim for at the steering wheel? If you think of the wheel as a clock face, I currently have around "10 minutes" of free play before any turning of the front wheels occurs.

Regards,
Martin

Removing the paper gaskets (shims) only corrects slack in the cross movement(pitman arm shaft). Adjusting the bushing on the end only corrects slack in the steering gear main shaft. You are absolutely correct in that you can remove the pitman arm and move the worm gear to an new unused place. Then reassemble the pitman arm.

It would be wise to check the wear/looseness in the king pins. And don't forget to check the adjustment in the tie rod ends.

Takes the entire system to make it work correctly.