No slack possible in 7 tooth steering?

[Johan Ottosen]

Hi all.
I have a 7 tooth steering colum in my 1929 daily driver. It has about 3" slack.
If I refurb it with new internals, bore it out to accept the a-3574 needle bearings and a sector seal kit, can I expect no slack?
Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[Synchro909]

I rebuilt the 7 tooth steering box on my 1928 Tudor when I got it. There was absolutely NO slack and even now, after about 20,000 miles, there is only about 1/2 inch play. I do not recommend the use of needle bearings on the sector shaft. A friend who has rebuilt dozens of these also will not use them. He makes eccentric bushes and with a bit of fiddling, gets the worm and sector perfectly engaged. You can't do that with the needle bearing kit.

 

[jb-ob]

2X on NO needle bearings. Been there once & not a gain. You might have the box counter sunk to accept a seal for the sector.

I'm told an acceptable fit can be gotten with the replacement sector and worm.

It was suggested to me to collect several NOS sectors and fit them to your existing worm. Seems many of these NOS or era replacement sectors where made over size to compensate for a worn worm. That was my experience.

The seven tooth steering box is greatly under rated, it works fine & simple to rebuild..

 

[Johan Ottosen]

I rebuilt the 7 tooth steering box on my 1928 Tudor when I got it. There was absolutely NO slack and even now, after about 20,000 miles, there is only about 1/2 inch play. I do not recommend the use of needle bearings on the sector shaft. A friend who has rebuilt dozens of these also will not use them. He makes eccentric bushes and with a bit of fiddling, gets the worm and sector perfectly engaged. You can't do that with the needle bearing kit.

Thank you. That is good news!
I will give the needle bearings some more thought.