F14 - Steering free play adjustment.

[Bluest]

Is it possible to adjust excessive play out of the steering box on an F14? I'm not looking for go kart levels of precision here, but it would be nice to have a bit more of a say in where it's going than I do at the minute. I reckon there's about 1/6th of a turn of free play at the steering wheel.

 

[winston1]

Pretty confident the F14 is similar to the YM series. Take a look at these instructions. Yanmar steering shaft repair

 

[Bluest]

That looks a bit drastic, I was hoping there might be some way to adjust the free play like you can with some old car steering boxes.

 

[winston1]

You can, The sector shaft has a locknut to loosen, then a slot in the end of the shaft to turn to the right to take out slack. Be careful and not get it to tight.

 

[HoyeTractor]

It really just depends on where the free travel is coming from. If it is a loose mesh between the sector (horizontal) shaft and the steering ball nut (vertical shaft) then adjusting the sector shaft inward will work great. If the looseness is from the vertical shaft moving up and down then you will need to remove a shim or two between the steering box and the tube to increase the pre-load on the bearings. If the looseness is in the actual ball nut then you will need to eventually rebuild the steering box as neither of these things will correct it.

 

[Bluest]

You can, The sector shaft has a locknut to loosen, then a slot in the end of the shaft to turn to the right to take out slack. Be careful and not get it to tight.

Thanks, that's what I was after. I've done it once before on an Isuzu Trooper, if I recall, the trick is to check it from full lock to full lock afterwards to ensure there's no binding. Adjust too much and it can jam up.

 

[Bluest]

It really just depends on where the free travel is coming from. If it is a loose mesh between the sector (horizontal) shaft and the steering ball nut (vertical shaft) then adjusting the sector shaft inward will work great. If the looseness is from the vertical shaft moving up and down then you will need to remove a shim or two between the steering box and the tube to increase the pre-load on the bearings. If the looseness is in the actual ball nut then you will need to eventually rebuild the steering box as neither of these things will correct it.

Thank you, that's good to know. I'll start with a high the adjustment and see how we go.

While I'm in there, I assume the steering box is full of oil. If that's correct, should it be renewed, and if so, what with?

 

[winston1]

The repair manual for a 220/226 says fill up with multi-purpose grease. Page 60-05-8. I know some use 90 wt gear oil.

 

[California]

trick is to check it from full lock to full lock afterwards to ensure there's no binding

... with the front axle on jackstands so there is no ground friction.

 

[Bluest]

I adjusted the steering box earlier. It was pretty easy to do. I only took out about half of the free play as I was concerned the head of the adjustment screw was going to go below the locknut. I wasn't sure how much further I could go with adjustment, but in any case it's much much better than it was.

I didn't even contemplate changing the grease/oil in the box as the fill plug is hard up against the bottom of the diesel tank.

For anyone who is interested here are a couple of pics. The adjustment screw is on the right hand side of the steering box. I had to remove the panel on that side, along with the panel with the Perspex window. Adjustment is simple, undo the outer lock nut, tighten the screw to until your happy with the free play (I did quarter turn at a time), and then retighten the locknut with a spanner whilst holding the screw stationary. I jacked the front end up to check the steering still moved freely through the full range once done.