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Excess Steering Slop Fix.


theBruce

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Hi All. Another newbie here, I'm just gonna dive right in... Here are some pics of my 1st B210 that I picked up in early spring. It smokes a little on start up, it has a good BGB and had excessive slop in the steering, but not to shabby of a machine. I wanted to correct the steering slop 1st thing. The worst condition was identified in the gearing. (sector gear and shaft connection). Before I tore into the steering I hunted for replacement parts with not much luck. So I figured I'd use the band saw and milling machine and have a go at it.






I'm not a big fan of Vari-drives but they are simple and I think they work well when maintained. This belt seems a little long by the way it sags. Anyone got any ideas on belts? Haven't made any adjustments yet...


To the steering work... This is the shafts area of connection to sector gear. The shiny spots on the flats on both sides are the contact points from the sloppy gear fit. Nut and washers were tight.


Face view after machine work. The idea was to make a compression fit against the OD and flats of the shaft. The band saw cut is evident as a line through the center of hole from left to right The small milled flat was cut as a start for the blade.


Order of Machining: Locate and mill a flat to start band saw blade. Another larger flat was milled for the fastener. Then tap-drilled with #7 for a 1/4-20 cap screw. "G" drill clearance hole to a depth no deeper than saw where saw cut is. Tapped 1/4-20. Lastly, the band saw cut. And a pic of the cap screw installed.




And the assembly.


The large thick washer just clears the head of screw.


This gear is a stamping, the material around the edges are extremely tough to get through with any cutting tools. I don't think I could have done this procedure without my DoAll saw and Bridgeport mill. After machining and trial fit, the major slop was eliminated. It started with about 30 degrees of steer wheel slop, now down to about 10.
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Nice job, and your Vari-drive belt looks just like my B210, same slack too. make sure your clutch return spring is of OEM strength & use adjustment procedure in online manual and it will be great. You'll like the Vari-drive for snowblowing deep snow or tilling. Nice Tractor...good luck & welcome to the club
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Could it be tack welded to eliminate the slop? Mine had some slop and I loosened and re-tightened the nut.Don't know if that will work for long,but tightened things up quite a bit.
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I really like your fix. That is a very common point of wear and slop. I'd bet you could sell a few modified gears here or on ebay. That's a real slick idea and allows future work or disassembly. ;)
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I have eccentric pin rebuild kits available if you need one for the pinion gear that mates with your steering gear. It includes my new pin, bushing, lockwasher, & locknut.
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quote:
Originally posted by Allis_HB112
I have eccentric pin rebuild kits available if you need one for the pinion gear that mates with your steering gear. It includes my new pin, bushing, lockwasher, & locknut.
I can attest to the quality of these pin kits. Very nice...did a beautiful job for my Big Ten restoration. I bought two so I would have a spare for my next resto!
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quote:
Originally posted by Allis_HB112
I have eccentric pin rebuild kits available if you need one for the pinion gear that mates with your steering gear. It includes my new pin, bushing, lockwasher, & locknut.
Wayne's re-build kits are better and less expensive to buy than going thru dealers. He can also recommend bushing modifications for the steering and axle pivot points that get sloppy over time.
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Great info on the extra steering slop fixes. I will definitely look into all of these suggestions as I contemplate a tear down and restore of this machine. I'm new to tractors and their restoration. Most of my wrenching has been in the machine shop, and also, thanks folks for all your nice comments. ;)
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On the vari drive: If your belt is significantly less than 1" wide it should be replaced to get it to ride where it is supposed to be. I just did that this summer and it made all the difference. I might have to do your gear mod on the same machine. The 210 is really sloppy, esp compared to my 64 with all new heim-ends on all the tie rods:D
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Hey, thanks for the belt info. Mine rides a little high at the BGB sheave only because the shift lever's indents are worn away and I had to wedge the lever up above the highest notch just to keep it in position. ( Not recommended !) I would like to replace the lever and its "positioner" but haven't found any yet. If you do the same method on the gear mod that I did be sure to cut the slot wide enough to allow a good clamp against the shaft when you tighten the bolt. My gear had quite a bit of slop and it was just a wild guess how wide the slot should be. My blade cuts .040 wide. The slot was almost closed before she gripped the shaft. It was also mentioned earlier that a tack weld might work too, not sure where, maybe after the clamping ?
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would like to give another plus to the great work of the OP and to wayne, his pin kits are of great use and need to us with these machines. don't be afraid to buy from him he is honest and great to deal with. btw, if i ever get pictures to size with this new computer wayne im sending you some of the finished tractor.
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Thanks for the "kudos" on the eccentric pins. They are MUCH higher quality that original, especially the 1st batch, which were nitrided H-13 pins, close to 70Rc skin, but the last 5 pins were still over 50Rc, just not nitrided. Side note, it APPEARS that I'm changing jobs, and that opportunity won't be available again, so appreciate those pins as there won't be any more (as I posted). If this job doesn't happen, I'm thinking about buying enough nitrided pin stock for about 50 more pins down the road. AND, if this job DOESN'T happen, expect to see new steering gears available. I've been working on that project for a while, but the teeth are bastard 35 deg. P.A. or something weird. They would not be stamped steel, but wire EDM cut tool steel, again, probably H-13, about 48Rc.
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Wayne, how can I hook up on one of these pin kits, sounds like i might need one in the near future. I'm planning to restore my machine this winter, with pics and such of course.
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Wayne, which gear are you talking about? The one that gets the hole rounded out, or the one that connects to teh steering shaft and carries the eccentric pin? I find both to be frequent and common failure points on the tractos I have worked on, and have passed on. Hope the job thing works out to your benefit!
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The eccentric pins are gone. I sent out the last one today. It's the pin the steering shaft rides on. The gear repaired in this thread rides against the pinion gear attached to the steering wheel shaft. The eccentric pin adjusts the clearance between these 2 gears. Of the 3 steering assemblies I have on these tractors, none have had the problem that Bruce had with his. The problem I have seen with this gear is the wear in the teeth in the center section of the gear, so when you adjust it, it is tight on the ends of the turns, but loose in the center. The gears are just plain worn out. I have a fix for these, but I don't have it perfected, and assuming I change jobs, it won't happen. The fix would be to take a wire EDM skin cut on the gears to renew them. It might take an eccentric pin with a slight bit more offset than the ones I did of .035" offset. The biggest obstacle is these teeth are totally bastard with what I believe to be 35 degrees of pressure angle, vs either 14.5 or 20 degrees standard. I can't even come up with CAD data to match these gears, as I have many hours trying. My intent was to machine new gears from 3/8" stock. These are 11/32" thick for no real apparent reason. My AC HB112 had the set screw that holds the eccentric pin in place come loose, and trashed not only the pin, but the hole it was in. Being a toolmaker, it was no problem to bore out the casting oversize by 1/64", but the eccentric pins.......well.....that's another story. Again, being a toolmaker with some fancy equipment, I just made my own. And to cover the expense of making one, I made 25. We don't want to go into the time spent on making the 1st pin. Just trust me in saying there was no money to be made in this project in the way I went about it, other than I used the highly specialized moldmaking equipment to build tractor parts and sell them on the side. And I doubt that those that DID end up with these pins will never have to replace them again. Bushings maybe in another 40 years, but not pins. The way these were made was I started with a blank piece of through hardened and nitrided steel pin 1/2" dia cut to length, and detailed it from there, vs turning the thread and 3/8" dia shank soft and heat treating them after cutting them, which I don't believe was done from the factory. The process was very complicated, but they turned out great. I'm just glad I didn't have to pay for my pin. It's probably worth about $500. CNC time isn't cheap, and it's good to have friends. And if you that bought my eccentric pins were happy with those, try my new rubber foot rest pads. Top quality also, and again, made from the need of my own use. Now that I have a tool steel pattern, these could be made again for a long time. Sorry if I rambled on too long.
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