Center Arm Rebuild (1 Viewer)

[kunzma]

Early - 6/1969 Steering Center Arm

Wanted to post up a thread on the partial rebuild of my center arm. I say partial because my center arm shaft and the bearing races were undamaged. If you need a new shaft I think that Mark's Off Road and Cruiser Outfitters still have some. If the races that support the bearings were damaged they would need to be pressed out and the new ones included in the kit pressed in.

I used a kit from Specter Off Road. It does not include the center arm shaft. It has two bearing races that I did not use because mine were fine. It also included a rubber O-ring that didn't seem to have a use in this application.

 

[kunzma]

Sent parts off to be cad plated and powder coated. Some powder coat got on the inner surfaces that needed to be filed out so parts would fit together correctly. Used moly grease on all parts except the threads where I used anti-seize. This rebuild is easier to do off of the truck, especially when putting in the woodruff keys.

 

[kunzma]

A little grease in the slots will hold the woodruff keys in place while you slip in the bottom bearing. It's hard to see that the keys are in their slots in the picture but they are. Flipped the center arm over and stood it up on a coupe of scrap 2x4s as I dropped the bottom bearing in place. Then checked that both keys remained in place by feeling with a cotter pin. If one or both get pushed out of place it will require disassembly with a new attempt.

 

[kunzma]

Then installed the spring, larger dust seal, and then the smaller dust seal cover.

 

[kunzma]

This looks wrong but the dust seal compresses and the smaller dust seal cover slides inside the center arm hub once the nut is tightened. I used a screwdriver to push the seal past the edges of the hub and the seal cover as the nut was tightened.

 

[kunzma]

Flipped over the center arm. This is a good point in the build to grease the unit with a moly based grease. Picture #2 and #3 are the small dust seal and large dust seal cover. Installed the unit in upper bracket with the washer and castle nut. Used two new M10x45 bolts to fasten the lower support to the frame. Tightened everything up but made sure there was no binding. Reinstalled the tie rods and the shimmy damper. Lastly the cotter pins.

 

[Vintij74]

This looks wrong but the dust seal compresses and the smaller dust seal cover slides inside the center arm hub once the nut is tightened. I used a screwdriver to push the seal past the edges of the hub and cover as the nut was tightened.

View attachment 1505677

View attachment 1505678

View attachment 1505679

View attachment 1505680

That's the nicest castle nut /assembly I ever saw. Kept manual steering on my 40, but not purdy like yours

 

[landcrusher909]

Great write up and pictures

 

[kunzma]

Thanks. Hope this helps someone in the future.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Great thread!

 

[kunzma]

TTT for @cruiserkreutz