steering box work

["Watry, Andrew (LNG-SFR)" <Andrew.Watry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jon's posting of Erik's writeup of changing a steering box seal in place
without removing the box was a great thing.  I think this procedure is
applicable to Burman boxes common to GTVs, Spiders, Berlinas, in certain
eras (late 60s-mid 70s at least).  A couple related points for other models:

* For 73ish and later cars with U-joint-shaft steering boxes, it's not much
work really to remove the box from the car and do this work upright on the
bench.  Removing a solid-shaft box (generally 72 and earlier, with
exceptions like 74 Berlinas and probably others) with the engine, etc. in
place is a difficult, but apparently not impossible, task.

* ZF boxes are different in both design and arrangement.  Also, on early ZF
boxes (like in my 67 Super), the seal is a nowadays non-standard size, and
not readily available. Norman Racing and I looked high and low for the right
size and couldn't find one.  Our solution was to machine the bottom of the
box a bit to accept a common seal with a slightly larger OD, but same ID and
height.  It works fine, but you couldn't do that to the box in the car.
Late Spider ZF boxes may have a more normal seal.  I don't know if the odd
seal size is common to all early ZF boxes or just early Giulia sedans, which
have a different box from other 105 cars that includes a big pivot point for
the parking brake lever.  Later Giulia sedans went to an on-tunnel pull-up
handle like the other cars, but I don't know if their steering boxes
changes.

* Getting the steering arm off the splined shaft is not always easy.
Sometimes it comes right off, but I've had a couple boxes that took a good
deal of pulling, pressing, and beating to get the arm off.  Again, you
couldn't probably do this with the box in the car.  Conversely, sometimes
the nut is loose and the arm practically falls off when you remove the nut.

Andrew Watry
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