I am new here and I hope I am doing this right. I couldn't figure out how to search the archives, so I will just ask my question. I have a 1948 8N. I am rebuilding the steering gearbox. It's the gearbox that has the sector shaft housings that you rotate to take out the backlash. I replaced and reamed the sector shaft bushings, I replaced all the bearings and put in a new steering shaft with a new ball nut. The old shaft was bent slightly. It wobbled some at the top of the tube as you rotated it. The manual says to rotate the housings to take out the backlash as you assemble it. I took out the backlash and then backed off by loosening it to the first set of bolt holes. So now, when I rotate the steering wheel there are intermittent places in the rotation where the steering is hard to turn and places where the steering is easy. The only thing I can think of is that somehow the shaft must somehow not be straight between the bottom and top roller bearings where the ball nut travels or the screw channels where the balls travel are not true. Am I asking too much out of this ? If I back off by rotating the sector shaft housings to loosen thing up, that results in significant play in the steering. I can return the worm shaft and ball nut, but I don't want to do that if nothing is wrong with it. Is there anyone who can suggest how I should proceed from here? Maybe there is something else I can try or check, but I don't know what that could be. Thanks a lot for any suggestions you might have.

When you turn the steering wheel and it goes from loose to tight, does it happen at the same angular position of the steering wheel every time? If so, then could be the steering shaft is bent or something with the shaft and nut. If it happens at different angles of the steering wheel, then likely in the sector gears. Does it have more slop with the wheels straight ahead and tighter in other wheel angles? Then it could be worn sector teeth in that position.

Another thought is the reamed bushings. Assuming they are reamed perpendicular to the mount surface, maybe they are actually too tight and not allowing enough slop to compensate for uneven wear in the sector gears. Normally no slop is good but sometimes a little slop helps with self-alignment. Could also try swapping the plates with the bushings from one side to the other to see by chance if that makes a difference.

In the How To section there are a number of documents that detail the various steering systems that were on these old tractors.

View it here:

• Link: https://ntractorclub.com/howtos/howtos.htm

Thanks Bob, I hadn’t seen all that information before. I SM going to check the steering parts out.

You’re welcome.

The resources here are extensive and comprehensive, an invaluable compilation of data.