Steering box Roadster 1948

[Michael Denmark]

Do any know if the Main nut in the steering box is beeing remanufactured ?
Or have any one for sale ?

The Main nut have part number : OF.2-3

Is there a trix to reduce the exive play in the steering box ?

Michael from Denmark

[Michael Denmark]

I did find this on the net , have any try thy this ? :

Address wear in the thread as follows. Clean the nut thoroughly (Prepsol or similar)then tin the inside of the nut lightly with solder. Grease the thread on the shaft with a good axle grease (don't use WD 40 or similar as they may well flash) and screw the nut on, about halfway along. Melt babbit metal, heat up the nut, and pour the molten babbit metal down the bush hole, rotating the shaft until metal appears at the end of the nut. Keep rotating the shaft as it cools down to prevent binding.

This will get rid of the play in the thread, but note that the effectiveness of the repair may be limited if the thread on the shaft has much “hourglass” wear on it.

Play between the nut and the side of the box is addressed similarly ie by building up the sides of the nut with babbit metal and machining to be a tight sliding fit in the box. Addressing other areas of wear, eg in the drop arm shaft bushes, should be straightforward.

Michael from Denmark

[Paul Bouchard]

Michael,

Steering nuts can be as hard to find as hen's teeth. I was lucky to find one for my Super Ten on eBay, but even then they are few and far between.

From the boxes that I have rebuilt, the main culprit was the drop arm and /or bushes/ There is a great deal of force on these and very little change of proper lubrication.

The other method, using solder and babbit metal, is an interesting one. I have never tried it, but it could give some more life to a wobbly steering box.

Do let us know what method you use and how it turned out!

Paul