Re: Cleaning or flushing a Steering Box

["Paul Irvine" <kcabpilot@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jon,

Concerning the Burman steering box, mine shattered on me so after removal I
took it completely apart. The idea of pulling the seal and pouring 5w oil
through to flush it out is something you can forget about. To pull the seal
you'd have to pull the pitman arm off. Above the seal is a pretty
substantial bushing so it would probably take about a month and a half for
the oil to leak out and besides that, you'd just be flushing any dirt there
was down into the bushing where it could do the most harm.

Your best bet is to just fill the box with wheel bearing grease. The Burman
box is different than the ZF box. It has a helical ball bearing that rides
up and down the screw gear on the shaft. At the top of it is a knuckle that
rides in a race plate that rotates the output shaft. This is where the
majority of wear occurs and it manifests itself as excessive freeplay and
some mild clunking at the centerpoint. Filling with grease won't help you
out with that.

Also, while you're poking around have someone turn the wheel back and forth
and watch for flex. If the box is cracked like mine was you probably won't
be able to tell by just looking at it, you need to put some stress on it.

Getting the box out is not all that bad. You need to remove the exhaust
headers, battery and coolant overflow tank first. You also need to pull the
steering wheel and pitman arm. (or whatever that thing is called)

Good luck

Paul Irvine - Antioch CA
Project Alfa
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided