7 tooth steering lower oil seal

Sparky

Sparky

Well-known member
7 tooth steering lower oil seal -update

UPDATE: See my post at bottom

I got my 7 tooth steering box back together after replacing the sector and the lower bushing. Came out great; it has less than one inch free play now. But I can't figure out how to install the new lower oil seal that comes with the gasket kit. It is very thick rubber, and when it is installed there is no way to thread on the retaining nut.
 

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It's from a 7-tooth gasket set. I agree that many of the parts lists describe a felt washer, but the replacement ones are rubber.
 
That rubber has been in the 7 tooth kit for a long time, and is nearly useless. It will most likely cause the light switch rod to rotate with the steering wheel, and if too tight, will twist the rod to destruction. There is a replacement end cap made for the 7 tooth that has a thin brass tube attached to it, much the same as the bolt on tube unit for the 2 tooth box. I installed one of them in my tudor several years ago, and it works great.
 
I've seen those replacement caps in the catalogs, but I have the rubber seal in hand so I thought I'd give it a try first. But if the rubber seal is as useless as you say I won't bother with it.
 
THe rubber seal is a waste of time. If loose enough to allow the light rod to turn, will leak. If tight the light rod will not turn. Get the replacement nut with the brass tube. Clean out the end of the steering column with a .38 bore brush soaked in solvent to remove the crud as there is a lot up there. If you do not it will twist off the soft brass tube on the end nut. You must remove the light rod to do this. After making sure there is no inteference between the brass tube and steering column, reassemble with some Locktite( preferably the type that will release easily) on the theads of the nut to prevent oil from seeping around the nut.
 
Maybe you could use the tube from a 30-31 lower plate & carefully solder it to the threaded retainer for the 7 tooth box.Use a bit of blue loctite to seal the threads.
 
Probably not worth the effort to convert one because you can get a '29 version of the part.
 
I used the brass tube mentioned above and it worked great. No leaks yet after 2 years and no problems with the light shaft.
 
There are apparently at least two versions of the 7 tooth. I tried installing the seal with the brass tube in my 7 tooth but the tube was too large in diameter. I ended up using the rubber seal you have shown. You need to compress it a little (or alot) to get some threads on the retaining nut, then tighten it up. It is tight on the shaft, but everything works good and turning the wheel does not turn on the headlights. Stopped the leak as well. Mine was also leaking out the shaft through the frame and I installed the o-ring and washer against the frame to seal that leak.
 
I decided to go with the brass tube seal and got it installed with no problems. I put some loctite on the threads so it seals up tight now. But I noticed a bit of seepage around one of the bearing retainer mounting screws. I guess the oil is working its way around the threads. Would a dab of silicone on the screw threads fix it?
 
I decided to go with the tube, but then found it was too large for the steering shaft. I had a local machinist bore out the shaft to fit the tube. I bored out the rubber gasket so it would fit over the tube and had no trouble screwing the tube with the gasket into the bushing housing. I have no leak into the light switch.

But now I find that I have a leak through the shims between the bushing housing and the steering box. The four bolts are very tight, but it keeps seeping. I plan to replace the shims and need to know if there is some sealant that I should use.

I also put the sector shaft seal in it and it does not leak.
 
Be careful when you work with the shims. When I rebuilt mine, I purchased a new set of shims. Being the kit had a bunch of shims in it, I thought a person needed to put them all in. Well, that is not the way it works. The shims should be used based on what you need rather than put them all in. What I found was that when I put them all in, I had a lot of play in the steering and the steering shaft would move up and down in the column. We anyway, you don't use all the shims-just enough to get a tight fit with your shaft/worm/etc. so that you don't have the problem I had.

Hope this is not to confussing. If so PM me and I will try to explain.
 
Did any of you "Fordbarners" that used the brass tube in the 28 7 tooth steering box have to bore out the end of the steering shaft, to allow the tube to slide up into the shaft ?
 
Colorado Greg said:
There are apparently at least two versions of the 7 tooth. I tried installing the seal with the brass tube in my 7 tooth but the tube was too large in diameter.

This is NOT a difference in the 7 tooth steering columns but a difference in the tube seals. A while ago, perhaps the first available ones, were indeed too large.

The ones currently available if bought new from a vendor are correctly sized and slide right in. Some of the early ones were made of steel tubing swaged to the bottom plate and even if you bored out the steering shaft they still leaked. The new ones are soldered or solderable and do not leak. At least from that end.
Click to expand...
 
Yes I drilled mine out so the brass tube would fit. Blew air through afterwards and reinstalled horn rod. Works like a charm, nice and dry now.
 
I was reluctant to drill, or machine bore the end of the steering column shaft, as the amount of material removed for installation of the tube might weaken or jeprodize the strength of the shaft. If the tubes now being produced for the 7 tooth steering are of a smaller O.D., still allowing the wiring harness to pass through.....OK!
 
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