Steering Gear Sector Shaft roller won't roll

[Ian G.]

Hi folks. I'm rebuillding the Steering Gearbox on my 59. I've read the different rebuild guides and using Joe Calcagno's video for reference. The old roller bearing on the sector shaft had galling and I'll need to replace the worm gear, so I'm replacing the roller and pin, along with all other bearings and races.

I've polished the shaft with crocus cloth and sanded & filed the mating surfaces where the roller bearing slides in. The roller slides into the receiver relatively smoothly. When I assemble the sector shaft and roller, I find the roller bearing will not spin freely; it rotates only with firm finger pressure. I've tried assembling few times with no luck and be sure the parts are OK, I reassembled using the old roller and pin. The old roller spins fine, so I don't think I bent the sector shaft or anything like that. I also tried the new pin in the old roller. The old roller also spins fine with the new pin. The pin slides into the receiver fine as well. When I slide the pin in about 1/2 way the new roller still spins OK. It seems to bind up once I've got the pin in about 3/4 and is engaging with the hole on the receiver on opposite side.

Any ideas and help appreciated.

[Gary C.]

Ian,

Suggest you find a TriFive steering box repair shop in your area. That's what I had to do on my '57 many years ago when I had a similar problem.

Gary
....

[Mike T.]

Ian - What torque setting did you use on the sector roller? It's been years since I rebuilt the steering box in my 61 Vette but I just looked it up and found the torque was to be in the 45-55 range and I set it at 50 and no problems.
Mike T - Prescott AZ

[Ian G.]

Hey Gary, I don't see any TrivFives in the CA bay area. There are a couple shops and trusted rebuilders in the area who are go tos. I may need to try one of them since I heard Joe Calcagno is retired.

Mike - Thanks for that torque number. I was trying to find that. I haven't torqued it down yet. It binds up as soon as I put the pin in. If I put in the old roller with old or new pin, it spins freely without torquing the nut.

I'm debating filing the mating surface of the receiver more, but I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do since the roller slides in pretty good already. I'm also sure it isn't catching on the hollow of the receiver underside either. It's the weirdest thing since the new roller spins just fine when out and the pin in it out of the sector. The roller has two separate inner races, so I'm thinking the pin is somehow tweaking them out of alignment to press the ball bearings too much when the pin is fully inserted. Possibly disassembling both rollers and using the inner races from the old one on the new one with the new ball bearings. That's probably a better idea than filing down the receiver more.

[Pat H.]

I restored my 59 about 12 years ago. When the steering column was out, I decided to have it rebuilt. Not many shops do this work. I had Werner Meir at Masterworks Restoration in Sterling Heights Michigan do mine and it worked just like new. There was no slop and you could turn the shaft with wor fingers. He did tell me that the current replacement parts need some tweeking to get it to work properly

[Ian G.]

Yeah locally Joe Calcagno would be the go to, and well respected, but he's retired. Not sure who else on the west coast to send it to. I measured the rollers and the new one is 1.033" thick vs the original one at 1.030" thick. When I slide the roller into the receiver I can feel a bit of resistance further in, so I'm still debating whether I should file the mating surface of the receiver more or sand the inner bearing races on my machinists block. ...or perhaps some other trick... I can also see that the original roller has a chamfer on the exterior of either side of the inner race, which the new one does not. Wondering if that could impact it.

[Leif A.]

Ian,
Disclaimer...I know nothing about the C1 steering box. That replacement bearing does look suspect when comparing to the original bearing. I found this write-up on the WWW and thought it might help. The last page of the article has a listing of the parts needed for your project. Best of luck with your rebuild.

https://www.earlycorvettes.com/corvettesite/SACE/articleswebpages/Chassis/v6n2steeringrebuild.pdf

[Ian G.]

Hi Leif,
Thank you. I've heard about this article but didn't see it before. I've got others from John Hinckley, Tom Parsons and others. Not sure when this article was werittem, maybe the 90's? I am suspicious the Dot Deco Products mentioned my be defunct, but I found this website and sent them and email. https://dotproducts.us/
If it's the same company maybe they have back inventory?

As far as I know, the current worm and sector gear is only made by a company called CHS Ricardo Cavallero SRL out of Argentina. That seems to be where all the suppliers get their worm and rollers and when I bought from Corvette Central, even the thrust and needle bearings came from them.

https://www.chsauto.com/

I plan to get Timken bearings instead. Hunting around on the web, I believe the current Timken replacement parts for the bearings are as follows... Maybe someone can correct/deny:

B-1812 - Sector shaft needle bearing
B-1816 - Sector shaft needle bearing
5-BC - thrust bearing (x2)
6 - thrust bearing cup (x2)
50151S - Steering Gear Pitman Shaft Seal

[Ian G.]

Just to let you know, I'm going to post on corvette forum as well. I hate it at work when people ask three different people the same question and don't let them know :P

[Richard M.]

Ian, I've been following but didn't have anything to add earlier, but I just noticed your photo of the two roller bearings again.

It seems to me that your original roller was seized. This is based on the large wear mark/groove in the old one, (at 7:00). It seems like it was like that for a long time.
image.png

The fact as to why your bolt hangs up 3/4 of the way into the assembly is odd. Did you check the bolt to ensure it isn't bent? If it isn't bent, maybe a good cleaning on a wire wheel or sanding the shank might help. This may be enough to free up the roller from binding when reinstalled in the sector shaft. I've done many of these over the years and never had the problem you're seeing.

Rich
P.S. Did you get just the new worm gear, or did it come assembled on a new steering shaft? Is it the Corvette Central kit? If so you'll have to find worm center manually. Repro worm gears are made with varying centers, unlike original gears which had the center marked on the top of the shaft with a chisel mark. For more info on this, go to the summary pages 38-46 of the pdf below.

As the Worm Turns - compr-3.compressed.pdf

It's from the Database of Restoration Documents Sticky above. Note the the ST-12 procedure to find worm center will not work using the repro worm gears.

[Ian G.]

Hi Rich, Good to hear from you! This is indeed the Corvette Central Kit. I think the worm and roller must all come from CHS though. I put a machinist's rule against the bolt and it does seem straight. Same with the old one, but I can see its worn, as the bearing must of spun on it - which it shouldn't. the new pin goes straight into the sector shaft receiver hole smoothly. The bolt is nice and smooth - I can't feel any snags on it. The old pin is much worse really and the old roller rolls fine with both new and old pins installed in the sector shaft. I figure it must be this new roller from CHS. I tried both the pins in the sector again and they both rotate in the receiver holes just fine and don't seem to snag up going in.

Do you think I'm better off trying to sand .001 of each side of the roller or possibly filing down the inside of the receiver ears? Or maybe I should contact CHS and get a new roller shipped to me. I read on a chevy forum I can call them, buy direct and have them ship. I was also thinking of trying to find an NOS 53-54 Chevy sector shaft and trying the roller in it. I suppose I could just ship the whole thing to a qualified rebuilder, but I'm set on doing this myself.

I've ready about the off center worm machining and have prepared myself mentally for that altered adjustment regime before I started I just gotta get this roller to turn!

[Richard M.]

Ian,

Based on what yow've explained, I'd say there's something wrong with that new roller bearing. I agree you should try to get a replacement before attempting to modify the sector shaft.

Rich

[Ian G.]

Rich,
I've taken the old and new rollers and put compression on the inner races in a vice clamp. The new roller spins freely while the new roller won't budge. I definitely think the new roller inner races length to center was not machined in tolerance. See a pic of the old roller. You can see the inner races meet in the middle, whereas the new roller races do not. So even if I filed down the sector shaft receiver, I think it would not solve the problem once I torque down the nut (if I get that far). I've emailed CHS to see how I can buy a new roller kit from them direct. Maybe I'll get lucky and they will replace free of charge (I'm not holding my breath though).

[Richard M.]

Ian,

Yes, I believe that new one is bad.

I forget, are the inner races removable?

If so, see if there's a shim in the original.

Rich

[Ian G.]

Yeah, Per Joe's guide you can remove those inner races to replace the ball bearings. I'll have a look while I wait to hear back from CHS. I debated using the old races on the new roller as well. I may disassemble both and compare the innards.

With regard to the sector shaft. It is not perfect. I can detect a bearing cut lines, that just barely catch my fingernail. Thoughts on reuse? If you zoom in a lot you can probably see it.