BUILD THREAD For 1964 Falcon Sprint to Monte Carlo Rallye FIA spec'

[Paul B]

I rebuilt the steering box, they all need rebuilding after 50 years. You never know what you will find until you open it up. First remove the Pitman arm with a pitman arm puller tool. Hard to remove, keep a lot of pressure on while light side taps and it will pop off. Then loosen the sector shaft nut and turn the worm screw in a couple of easy turns, never force any thing on a steering box. Loosen the 3 bolts that hold the sector shaft plate, slide the plate toward the oil filler. it will disengage from the sector shaft. Then you can pull out the sector shaft, be careful of the bearing surfaces down the shaft. Check the gears for wear and damage. looking down the shaft hole you will see 2 needle roller bearing carriers and at the bottom an oil seal. I usually replace these all (1-1/8" shaft on the sprint, Mustangs are 1 inch), they tap out very easily be careful of the internal surfaces. you can tap or press them back in using a large socket or the like.
Use an impact screwdriver & hammer to loosen the large ring on the steering shaft, the unscrew the housing cap. you can then remove the whole shaft with the worm intact. inspect the upper and lower bearing races and inserts. More than likely the Seat inserts will be pitted and there may be damage to the bearing race, replace these, again they tap out fairly easily.
If you choose to remove all the ball bearings from the worm shaft...! there are 62 bearings and it is tricky to get back together. You must load the centre of the worm and don't move it while reloading it. Check all the worm surfaces for pitting. Once it is all degreased, washed, CRC or WD40 and dried clean you can reassemble with some moly grease on all the bearing surfaces. I also grease pack the sector shaft bearings down to the seal. Center the worm on the steering shaft, finger tighten all the adjuster rings and worm screw with lock nut so there is zero lash, but no drag. once the steering box is in you will need to set preload, You need a lb scale to pull the steering wheel it should take about (Ford manual says Maximum 4.5 Ft lbs) 3-4lb to turn the steering wheel (12inches from the center of the wheel) use the sector shaft screw to tighten/loosen in VERY SMALL INCREMENTS or you will damage the steering box. Also check end play at the end of the pitman arm, you need zero lash again, if it has some movement, Recheck Preload again. Screw the sector shaft adjuster screw inwards to tighten, it is best to back it off so you feel loose lash then slowly tighten so only just removes all lash, caution with this as over adjustment tightening will cause binding of the sector shaft and worm gear, then damage to the gears with excessive wear.

These are the old parts that were replaced

I have the parts now that Holman moody used to quicken the steering from 19:1 to 16:1
Plus a new sector shaft, a big thanks to Dale!

Removing the Pitman arm bolt, needs a lot of leverage, and good hold on pitman arm

Removing pitman arm, a lot of pressure and patients

Reassembly

[Heartbeat]

Nice Paul, I was thinking about pulling mine down but have taken the play out of it. Like your work.
Stuart McC

[Paul B]

Hi Stuart,
Thanks for your reply, When taking the play out of the sector shaft/ball nut, using the worm screw& lock nut on the top of the steering box. there need to be some end play from the base of the worm screw inside the box, to the sector shaft so you don't have binding and premature wear of your Steering box. Refer to factory manual sector shaft end play. Hope this helps.
Cheers Paul