TECH WEEK: Saginaw Steering Box Reversing!

Traditional "side steer" drag links are what we like to see on our early fenderless cars. Using an antique Gemmer box may not be to your liking or it may just not fit your application well. There are plenty of steering gears out there with long sector shafts but for the most part, their backwards. This is a tutorial on how to reverse one of these boxes of the Saginaw variety. This will change the direction of action and may solve your dilemma.

DISCLAIMER! If you are not qualified, do not do this. I assume no responsibilities for your actions. This is for information purposes.

What I am going to show you should not be attempted by anyone, this means you! Messing with steering and brakes is serious business. If you are in doubt of your abilities, ask questions and do not proceed.

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Ok, here we go.

A few months back as I was working on the Scud-Hud I ran into just this sort of situation. The 525 box was hammered poop and just didn't fit well into the envelope I had. I found this 60-70 ish Corvette manual steering gear on my shelf of misfit parts. It would work really well, just steered the wrong way. And if it was flipped over, mounting it would be even easier, BONUS!



Make a good clean work area with a bench vise, keep some clean towels near by and a tray to catch the loose bits that are going to come out of this.

Here is some Hawaii Samurai to get you in the right frame of mind:



First things to do is dissasemble the box and find out whether it's worth doing this or not. If the pitman arm is still on, you will need a proper pitman arm puller. Do not try and heat it, cut it or bash it with your BFH until submission. You will want to reuse these parts, so don't ruin them.

Unscrew the bolts holding the sector cap on and pull the sector out. You may need to turn the input shaft one direction or the other to get the quadrant gear to clear the housing.









Next up is removing the worm gear and end bearings. The outer lock ring can be a bit of a pain to remove, usually a large pair of slip lock pliers will suffice. If it's stubborn, a blunt chisel and a hammer can jar it loose. Remove the ring and unscrew the cap. Pull the worm and it's end bearings. Punch out the end cap then go clean your horrible mess.












I'll wait while you clean things up.

 

Ready?

There is a "top" to the block that the worm is going through. Notice the gear teeth are tapered, the deeper cut end of those gears is the top. Put a mark on the top of the block and which way the splined end is sticking out of the block to make reassembly easier if you have a short attention span or a problem with short term memory.

More dissassembly, we need to pull the recirculating ball screw mechanism apart so we can feed the input shaft from the other direction. There are two screws holding a retainer and two bearing guides made of two identical parts (four in total) and 30 or so bearings inside, remove the screws and hold the retainer down. Over a coffee can or some other CLEAN vessel, slowly pull the bearing guides out and shake out all the bearings.

It's best to count them all now and record it so you can search your shop/kitchen for the next few hours if you lose one.







While you have it all apart check for brineling, chips or abnormal wear and rust pits. If you find any, you may need a new box or at least repair parts. Bearing cups and bushings are replaceable if you can find them. But from here on I am going to assume you have a box that is in decent working order.

Insert the worm backwards from the way it was. You did mark the parts before you took them apart, right? I use a light application of grease on the worm and inside the block just to make things go together and stay in place. Center the worm in the block and start stuffing your clean ball bearings back into the block. I use a small drift punch to help shove them all back in. Equal amounts in all four open holes. It helps to turn the input shaft a bit to help them all settle back in place. You will be able to get all but 6/8 bearings back in place, those will go into the bearing guides. A bit of light grease will help hold them in place. Insert the bearing guides back into the block and hold them in place by hand.

You should be able to rotate the input shaft freely from one extreme to the other and no bearings should fall out. If you do lose a few, stuff them back in and repeat until they are all in. At that point you can put the retainer back on and insert the screws.

 

Attention is now focused on the housing, seals can be kind of a pain but if you have a good parts counter guy, they can find seals by inner/outer/thickness. You will also need a small core plug to fill the end where the input shaft used to protrude... I also made an adapter bushing to hold the new input shaft seal as this box's housing was small and did not accept a seal well.





Seals in place, time to assemble the box!

Lube up one of the input shaft bearings and slip it over the input then insert the worm assembly into the housing. Lube up the other input shaft bearing and place it on the exposed end. Thread the end cap on and snug it. You may not be able to find any information on how much preload the bearings should take. I typically tighten the end cap until I feel a bit of drag on the bearings, but very slightly. The input should turn smoothly, if so thread on the retainer nut and tighten while holding the end cap in place.










The sector cap had a thin paper gasket under it. Probably ruined and not reusable anyway. If you can find a new one, fantastic but I end up making a new one from gasket paper. Slip it over the sector and quadrant.

Slide in the sector, the center tooth of the quadrant should line up with the center notch in the block. Leave the cap rotated 180 out of place so you can fill the box up with grease. I have been using Lucas Red-Tacky with good success, there are plenty of others available.

Rotate the cap over, line up the gasket and replace the retainer bolts.

Loosen the lock nut and back out the adjusting screw in the center of the retainer cap. Turn the input shaft until it bottoms out in one direction, mark it's position. Turn the input shaft the opposite direction and count the turns as you do, when it bottoms out, mark it.

Turn the input half the full amount of turns to center up the block and quadrant gear. It should have a bit of play in the sector. Loosely replace the pitman arm, or carefully place vice grips on the splines to create a handle. Then turn the upper adjustment screw down a bit. Move the pitman arm back and forth. Keep turning the upper screw down until you feel a bit of drag in the middle of your steering boxes range. Once you find your sweet spot, lock the locknut down.







Your done!

Enjoy a cool beverage!

 

Very well done brother.......

 

neato! the 63-82 vette steering gear looks an awful lot like a 55-57 Chevy car steering gear, but the shaft is shorter...it goes all the way to the steering wheel on the 55-7. I wonder if a tri 5 box would work for this trick? they're probably easier to find, everyone takes them out and replaces them with 605s.

Chevy manual about overhauling the steering box

http://www.selectric.org/manuals/sagMAN/1.jpg

http://www.selectric.org/manuals/sagMAN/2.jpg

 

When I grabbed the box of the shelf, I thought it might have been an early Mustang box, like Pete and Jakes used to use on their four bar kits.

 

Great tech there Steve. Excellent description and pictures to show the process. Another fine example of your sharing the knowledge you have.

 

Pretty slick!

 

Excellent write-up and photos, but I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the basic concept. Could you explain how that reverses the steering action, please? I see the worm and the threads on it still go the same way,,, I'm stumped.

 

Look at the first picture and the last picture. You'll see that the steering shaft which once protruded from the big threaded plug now protrudes thru the opposite enf of the case. When you flip the entire gear over so the shaft extends up into the car (steering wheel end) the action is reversed.

All the Saginaws aren't configured the same: some, like the Tri Five Chevy gears start with the shaft sticking out of the fixed end of the case-like this one did AFTER reversing. When you reverse one of THEM, the shaft ends up sticking out thru a new hole in the big threaded plug.

 

Glad to see this thread-it illustrates something I've done many times. And especially something that I'd venture has been overlooked in most of the reversed Corvair gears. Starting in the second post where he disassembles the ball nut from the worm and dumps all the balls on the table. He does that to maintain the proper relationship of the tapers on the teeth of the the sector and the ball nut. I'll bet the majority of those who've reversed Corvair gears never noticed the tapers and simply reversed the shaft/ball nut assy in the case.

 

Great Tech article.
On the Mustang boxes, the first generation had the long shaft and the short shafts started in the second generation of Mustangs when cars had to have collapsible columns starting around 1968. Required after 68 maybe in some cars before that.

 

This is the way a tech thread should be written. Very very nicely done, as always. Thanks...

 

The Worm gear (steering shaft) is reversed in the box changing the direction the pitman arm moves when you turn the wheel. This lets guys using the box for a car with a drag link running parallel to the frame get the drag link level rather than at a steep angle. It also gives a guy a smoother operating recirculating ball gear box rather then the worm and sector box.

 

My favorite so far.

 

Awsome tech!

 

Nice work, as always.

 

Cool tech... I even saw John evans doing the hand and belt model bit.I have write something until the last tune finishes playing - Oh there it is!

 

You know it's good with a disclaimer like that....


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And I mean that in the best possible way as in "this is serious tech so put down the ball peen hammer and plasma cutter you jack ass" type of tech


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What, you mean to say that just because you own a Harbor Freight chop saw and 110V MIG you don't qualify as a fabricator?

 

Thanks. I never saw it done. I think I can do it now! Of course only for demonstation purposes.

 

It does look just like a Mustang box. Everything should work exactly the same if a fella was to reverse a Mustang box. I did a Mustang box, so I should know.

The Mustangs boxes come in a 1" and 1-1/8" sector shaft. Mine had the 1" shaft and matched an old Ford pitman arm, so it would have the old Ford look. Bearings and gaskets are available from Mustang resto houses.

Just like Steve's, I made a collar to hold the new seal on the input shaft. But I made it a bit taller to have the column tube slip over for clamping like an old Ford.

Thanks Steve.

 

Excelllent pics and jargon. Breaks are perfectly timed and the videos are educational! I have converted some power boxes to manual (better bearings) and learned much from this. peace

 

Thanx to Elpolocko and also to all who replied to my query. I don't know how I missed the part about the steering shaft being flipped. Sometimes the obvious escapes me, but Hell, I loose my beer in the garage quite often too!

 

Nice!

 

excellent

 

Awesome tech! As I sit here drinking my morning joe, I'm compelled to go out to the shop and attempt this feat on a Chev C10 box, may fit better than the BMW one slated for the 40. Thanks......

 

Hahaha


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Thank you for the well presented, and VERY useful tech, Steve!