So its getting very cold here & the family/social life is picking up again as we transition out of the covid crisis. All this means slow progress but a few things have got done.
Both bumpers have been cleaned up, had their brackets and bits blasted, painted & they have been refitted to the car.
The steering box was disassembled, cleaned, inspected, deemed to be in good condition & reassembled. There are a couple of points of interest here. Its an Aussie 16:1 box but most likely just an opposite hand US item so take these points with a grain of salt.
1) I was advised by Randy at Stangersite that my box should most likely have 54 balls in it. It indeed did have 54. But there was space for another two with room to spare,.... so in they went! I can't really see why you would want significant space in a worm drive system so time will tell. Will be interesting to see if the steering response tightens up.
2) Bottom seals were hard to come by in Australia and as I wasn't removing the needle bearings (all looked good) the seal would be hard to remove without damaging these. There is however a largeish, for want of a better word, counterbore in the bottom below the seal bore. It looked to be concentric to shaft and rough measurements couldn't prove otherwise so I thought I would see if a seal could be sourced with the right ID for the shaft that would fit in the counterbore. There was nothing imperial. But as luck would have it a metric 43x28x7mm fitted in just right. So the original seal stayed in place & this went in over the top. Could be a handy fix for sealing the box while still in the car.
Heres some pics.
