Help, cant get balls back in (power steering box)

[Dave H]

It was all going so so well.....rebuilding the power steering box over the last couple of nights, problem is i unscrewed the worm out of the power piston and all the recirculating ball bearings came out.....a quick internet search is not specific enough ....one tip says get as many balls as you can back into the holes then grease the inside of the split return tube to hold the remaining balls before fitting this..
Problem is i allways end up with 3 or 4 balls left over,
Is there a magic way of doing this ?
Are the balls slightly 2 differant diameters (0.005) as in some other makes of boxs to aid free running so you have to fit them small ,big ,small etc ?
Do you turn the shaft a certain way while filling or something ?
Any body have any experience in this part of the rebuild as i gave up after midnight last night (wife was complaining about me getting grease on the pillowcase) seriously though, any help or tips or or similar experiences would help me at the moment.
Your many many thanks in advance.
Dave

[Larry & Norma]

Wow, I would say you have balls for taking that on
Sorry can't help but I hope you write this up when successfully completed.

[George Des]

I've done this job at least twice. You need to turn the shaft to ensure the balls get distributed around the grooves properly. The last ball will be clearly visible at the very tip of the tube when all inserted. Make sure you use all of them. Hope this helps.

George

[jameshoward]

Does this help?

http://www.davidpetryk.net/Mercedes/Steering.htm

[tel76]

Place the shaft into the piston housing, placing the shaft approximately 1/2 way down (with NO grease) introduce the balls, you will have to move the shaft back and forth until you get them in, you should end up with about 4/5 left over, put some grease in the sheet metal two part holding container and introduce the remaining balls. you will be able to get all of them in (I think from memory it is 30) if you are unsure I can check for you on Monday,  how many did you take out ?

[Dave H]

Hi Eric

I am away with work this weekend but return Monday night to have another go at fitting the balls back in.
I had the piston up close to the cover when putting the balls in .

Perhaps as you say it needs to be half way out but not far enough out so that the balls fall off the end of the worm and into the piston.
Also clean grease off everything so the balls run in nicely as you say.

Let me know how many balls there are in case I lost one.. I will check mine when I return Monday night.
30 seems about right.. I was managing to get about 13 down the hole with another 13 greased and in the split tube leaving 4 out.
Half way out and no grease down the hole must be the trick !

Let me know the ball numbers plus anything else you can remember that might help.

Dave

[George Des]

The ball number varies between 29 and 30. You need to make sure you replace exactly what you took out. I have the manual for rebuilding these and 29 or 30 is correct. Again it is one or the other depending upon what you took out. Sounds like these were individually assembled at the factory and the number of balls based on the individual tolerances of the parts used to assemble the piece at hand. I think the point is that you don't arbitralily select 29 or 30. Hope this makes sense.

George

[Dave H]

Hi George

What you say makes perfect sense to me....

99% sure I have all the balls... If I did drop one  I know where it is and will find it in seconds on my return Monday night.

Does the manual give any other tips or detail on correct way to replace the balls.

Kind regards

Dave

[George Des]

David,

I rechecked the manual on this. I was mistaken. It is either 30 or 31 balls to fill the guide. The only tip is to use some grease on both ends of the ball guide. It does say to turn the worm while inserting the balls. I would use some synthetic grease for this such as the type used on brake rubber to ensure you don't have any compatibility problems with the fluid and seals.

George

[Dave H]

Whoop whoop ! it went back together....thanks guys

[Dave H]

20 down the hole...clean all grease off everything and use wire etc to push them and tight pack them down the hole...rotate/wobble shaft very slightly to assist
this...do not procede unless you have all 20 in.

[Dave H]

10 in the split tube....some boxs may have 11 balls.(30 0r 31 in total depending on who built it in the first place according to the manual )

[Dave H]

blob of grease to hold them in

[Dave H]

carefully put guide back in

[George Des]

David,

Before you declare full victory on this, you need to make sure you set some torque values correctly on that dome nut and front shaft nut. If you don't have them let me know and I'll pull out the manual. This box is such a PITA to put back in, I would not want to have to re-pull to set the torques correctly.

George

[Dave H]

Fantastic if you have the torque figures ...
I have been thinking about this same thing all day...

Dave

[George Des]

David,

Send me your email address and I'll pass these along to you. The procedure to torque this goes beyond just providing the right torque values and best to send you the complete excerpt.

George

[Dave H]

Thanks George

Daveharry1963@hotmail.com

Dave

[Eminent]

George, would you please be so kind to email me the torque values also? I have a spare PSB which is waiting for a rebuild also.
It's getverweeralmeel@hotmail.com
Thanks in advance.

Dave, is there a rebuild or seal kit for this PSB?
Thanks.

[Larry & Norma]

How about adding the torque values and procedures to the technical manual?

[Dave H]

Whoah.... See what you mean George . That goes way beyond a simple
Tighten the nut up and back it off a bit.
When you break it down the set up is nothing to do with tightening the
Round nut to a certain torque and everything to do with tightening the rod itself ..
This goes against everything I thought.
When I return on Tuesday night I will set the box to these figures .
It seems pretty straight forward when you convert everything into good
Old FT/LB....
Will let you know how it works out Tuesday or if I can simplify
The set up with a few pictures....thanks again for the procedure George.

[Eminent]

Thanks George. It sure will be a help when i start to rebuild mine.

[Dave H]

Rebuild seal kit is available from SLS Germany for euro 33

[George Des]

Yeah, the procedure sure looks arcane but there it is. There is a link somewhere in the Forum discussions on this topic that will take you to an Eastern European rebuilders site that shows how they do the rebuild and includes pictures. This may add some additional clarification to the write up I provided to you. Incidentally, Peter has a copy and will add to the Tech Manual at some point. I told him that I'm not totally clear on all the points of setting the torque myself so I can't add any further clarification to what I sent to you and him. hope it does help.

George

[Peter van Es]

How about adding the torque values and procedures to the technical manual?

They are here now: http://www.sl113.org/wiki/Steering/PowerSteeringBox

Peter