Squeaky/Creaking Steering Wheel Shaft - How to fix?

[greenmeanie]

The best thing is to take it off the truck and strip it on the bench and then follow the manual. The only gotcha is that all the ball bearings will fall out of the burman nut at some point. It helps if you only open it up on a clean, contained area. Doing this over a dirty garage floor among years of acummulated crap will have you spending hours hunting them down and wondering if you got them all. Count the balls out and count them back in again. When reassembling coat each ball ingrease to hold them in position while you thred the nut on the scroll.

Oh and pay good attention to the condition of the ball bearing races. If lubrication has been questionable they can often show spalling as a sign of fatigue failure. If present, this pitting will be obvious when you look.

Cheers
Gregor

[I Leak Oil]

Perhaps the mounting bolts on the frame end are loose causing the column to rub on the firewall or the mounting brackets?
Jason T.

[NC Rover]

Perhaps the mounting bolts on the frame end are loose causing the column to rub on the firewall or the mounting brackets?
Jason T.

Checked every single bolt. All are tight. Nothing loose. The problem lies within the steering box or inside the steering shaft...just above the steering box. I took some pics of the setup I have.

I wanted to take the steering box apart but unfortunately I don't have the proper took to get it apart. Any suggestions on where to get this tool?

**Also there is a drain plug on the side of the steering box. Can lubricant be added through this? Drained? Please forgive me for the stupid questions....








Steering setup for reference....

[SafeAirOne]

I wanted to take the steering box apart but unfortunately I don't have the proper too[l] to get it apart. Any suggestions on where to get this tool?

**Also there is a drain plug on the side of the steering box. Can lubricant be added through this? Drained? Please forgive me for the stupid questions....

Is the specialty tool you are talking about the puller to remove the steering drop arm? If so, I imagine that there are other ways to get the steering drop arm off, including using a generic gear or bearing puller.

As for the drain plug on the side, that may be the adjuster that sets the amount of backlash in the steering box. The adjuster has a screw with a square-drive male end and a locking (jamb) nut which holds the set screw in place.

Also, I'm not familiar with coil spring conversions, but it would appear that the steering track rod is bent in the last photo. Perhaps it's an optical illusion in the photo--It's the rod that connects the two swivels together so that both weels steer simultaneously. Perhaps this is normal on these conversions for clearance purposes, I don't know, but it surely must weaken the steering system during heavy off-roading.

[greenmeanie]

I wanted to take the steering box apart but unfortunately I don't have the proper took to get it apart. Any suggestions on where to get this tool?

**Also there is a drain plug on the side of the steering box. Can lubricant be added through this? Drained? Please forgive me for the stupid questions....








Steering setup for reference....

OK first things first. The plug on the side of the steering box is to adjust the backlash. It's not a bad place to start. Undo the big jam nut and then gently tighten the inner square head nut thing. You should not make it much more than finger tight but you'll know when it's right because the steering wheel won't feel vague any more.

If that does n't fix things the next thing to do is pull the side plate off. Drain the oil through a paper filter and look for metallic nasties. THat should tell you if any bearings are collapsed. Also look at the condition of the groove in the side plate and the matching part of the burman nut. Look for signs of heavy wear or galling.

To remove the steering box I had the same issue. Pullers just were not working. I ended up making a U shaped shim out of .062 sheet steel to protect the steering box housing. Having removed the nut I then went to town with a suitably sized pickle fork and off she came.

As a point of interest you can just see a plug in the top of the steering box in the top picture. That is the fill plug but on yours it seems to be pretty crowded by the brake servo.

Cheers
Gregor

[eranthomson]

Solved!

I had the EXACT same problem and was equally convinced the sound was coming from the steering column. I checked everything, oiled/lubed everything and still it persisted... so annoying.

I eventually sourced the noise to a dry bushing at the bottom of the first steering arm - these look almost exactly like tie rod ends, usually with a rubber seal over the joint. I peeled back the rubber boot, hit it with wd40, packed the joint with grease and voila - after months of putting up with that creeeeaaakkkking - it was gone.

Makes the old girl a pleasure to drive again... although now I can hear a few other new sounds... Ah, Land Rover livin'


I'll be dollars to doughnuts thats what's up with yours... get a friend to turn the wheel while you place your hands on the joint and you will feel it vibrating. Good luck.