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Topic: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear (Read 3914 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #20 –
The part number I used on my 1996 U320 was M100PGW1.  About half the price of the PDP1 and essentially the same box.  Physically identical, with slightly enhanced features.

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #21 –
On the 270's with the different gen if you pull the radiator the whole arm is right there.

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #22 –
Thanks Kemahjohn, I will check it out

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #23 –
Quote from: John44 –
On the 270's with the different gen if you pull the radiator the whole arm is right there.
Thanks John I am going to try and make it out to the coach tomorrow and get some pictures so I know what all I am dealing with.

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #24 –
Quote
On the 270's with the different gen if you pull the radiator the whole arm is right there.

Here's a couple of photos of what John is referring to. This is from my 97 270 with the radiator removed.
jor

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #25 –
Quote from: jor –
Here's a photo of what John is referring to. This is from my 97 270 with the radiator removed.
jor

Anyone have a pic of the tool needed? I know there are different types

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #27 –
I have the puller and the socket to remove the nut.
I lend it to any forum member.
If you want to borrow it send me a email, I will mail it to you, send it back when your done.

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #28 –
On the 96' U320 the radiator is remote mounted on the outboard of the steering box.  It's a tight squeeze between the Pittman arm and the generator side wall---- that's why I let MOT do the swap out. 

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #29 –
My steering box is back in.  After watching this process I am glad I didn't try this myself. There are really a lot more steps than you might think and most of them are in places I would rather not go.

You need to pull out the generator, remove the blower and radiator for the generator from the front driver's side bay.  Our radiator was on the back wall with the blower next to it.  Other years have different configurations.  Beau said this was one of the easier ones. The steering box is bolted to a big steel plate on the inside of the bay. To get the pitman arm off the steering box shaft you need to remove a side panel from the generator box or cut a big hole, get a big pitman arm puller and pull it off.  Then hold the box up with a floor jack to disconnect the steering wheel shaft and the remaining bolts.  And then deal with more than 100 lbs of a dirty, oily hard to manage steering gear that has been leaking for some time.  Not a task for a recently rebuilt shoulder.



Pull the generator, drain coolant, pull radiator and blower.







Here is the box in a box sent for rebuild and returned in the box.



I was really lucky that Rudy Legett was coming here to do an AH service on the coach next to us so he volunteered to haul the box back to Chalk Truck in Houston.  It turned out that the AH service needed more time to replace a control board so he brought it back as well.  Chalk did the rebuilt in less than a day.  A giant thank you to my good friend Rudy.  He is the poster guy for being as selflessly helpful as one could hope for. 

__________

And the box that was inside the box, all rebuilt, cleaned up.



And the box in place up against the inside wall of the bay waiting for bolts.



Almost everything else happens out of sight.  Beau was squirming aroung under the coach with horribly outsized tools.  The Pitman arm is put back on, the steering coupling is attached to the box and to the steering column.  The side panel to the generator space is replaced. The hydraulic lines are reconnected  The generator coolant lines, radiator and blower are reinstalled.

All new coolant was used for the generator, bleed the air out of the generator cooling system.  We ran the generator to make sure there were no air pockets and no leaks.

We added oil back to the hydraulic system, started the engine and checked for leaks. Turned the wheels all the way to the left, made some measurements, all the way to the right, made some more measurements.  We were not hitting the hard stops and turning an equal amount in the each direction.  Then we aligned the wheels to straight ahead, again making measurements and made some adjustments to the drag link (I think that is what it was called) to adjust the steering wheel a bit to straight ahead.

Cleaned up, shared the contents of the swag box from Chalk Truck Parts with everyone (coffee cups, note pads, bottle openers, can kozies) exchanged paper and we were done.  Beau is going to come back when we leave to make sure steering wheel alignment is true. It will be close and any adjustment seems easy.

All in it was a bit more $ than I thought it would be but far less than the cost reports I have heard from this being done at FOT or MOT.  Beau knows his stuff and seems to have a pretty organized work process.  I will ask him to do more when we need it.

Roger

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #30 –
Great write up and pictures Roger, my setup is a bit different than yours as I only have a 8KW gen

Thanks

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #31 –
Nice job Roger! Did you clean and paint the parts that you removed before reinstalling?

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #32 –
Geeeze, There was not much time to scrape, prime and paint stuff.  I cleaned up as much as I could, there was a bit of a mess in the pan in the bay.  When we get back to Hastings I am going to pull the gen out and do the prep and paint on the rusty bits in there. I want to pull the windshield washer jug, clean it up and wire in a second pump or a bigger pump.  When it is time to clean the windows it just dribbles.  I want squirt!  Time available, I would have pressure washed the whole bay.

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #33 –
Roger my replacement wiper arms have a two squirt hole per side nozxle end mounted on the arm

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #34 –
My wiper squirrels just dribbled also, so I took them off along with the tubing and soaked them in CLR for a few hours and cleaned out the orffics with s/s wire. Worked much better after that

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #35 –
Yours is pretty Roger, but there's just something special about a REDHEAD!

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #36 –
To make more room in the streetside front bay, we moved windshield washer jar to front side of same wall it was mounted on.  Now it sits in the empty space between front cap and bay compartment forward wall.  I think we even used the same mounting holes, just reversed the setup.

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #37 –
I'm shipping a box off to Redhead. $495 was the quote plus shipping (~$70 each way).

Re: Red Head Blueprint Rebuilt Steering Gear

Reply #39 –
That is just what they quoted for me too. 

I drove mine today for a couple hundred miles, no leaks, feels right.