steering box rebuild question

[Capp]

Recently It became necessary to rebuild the Burman type steering box on my '74 GTV when a certain un-named individual stupidly turned the input shaft with the top cover unbolted. #$%*?/'=!!!! W/ all those little balls falling in all the wrong places, the sound reminded me of a very expensive type of Italian rainstick! So, having gotten a quick learning experience in rebuilding/resealing this little jewell, I noticed it now requires a greater degree of input torque (I think-- may just be paranoid!) to turn the input shaft-- I can hold the box in one hand and turn the input shaft w/ the thumb and forefinger of the other, w/ SOME effort. Yes, I did fabricate new paper gaskets to replace the old ones, and I took great pains to get the various shims back in their respective places but clearances were probably changed a little. It turns more freely when I leave loose the small top-most "diamond -shaped" cover. Obviously, I can just continue to add additional shims till it frees up but the QUESTION IS: is there a good rule-of-thumb or simple measurement using a lb/in. torque wrench, for example, that will tell me if it's o.k.? BTW- I did use wheel bearing grease to retain all those pesky little ball bearings during reassembly-- is that what's binding things up? TIA to all !

[alfadan]

yep, just keep playing with the thickness of the gaskets on the small cover. did you get the right number of balls in the races and ball-nut? I found a handy little sheet here on the board with the correct numbers. do you need this? also, did you check for cracks where all the bolts go through?

[Capp]

alfadan-- Yeah, I eventually found all the ball bearings which required a lot of crawling around w/ a flashlight under the workbench ! It's apparent there's only room for a certain number of balls in each bearing race and also in the "travelling" bearing on the main worm shaft. I didn't have any left over and couldn't find anywhere to put them if I had. It seems to turn without any "notchiness" and I didn't notice any cracks as I cleaned out the housing, so I'll give it a try. If it seems noticeably more difficult to turn once I get the car on the ground, guess I'll get out the shim stock! Oh, a diagram or direction sheet would be good to have in case this is all for nought, thanks.

[Alfacliff]

My spider (74) IS a little hard to turn unless rolling.Iguess years of power steering have taken their toll. My steering is smooth and easy with out any slop when rolling. Just the way they were made, go not stop.
cliff

[alfadan]

i found the thread where someone had posted the diagram showing where all 54 bb's go, but it was posted before the big black-out we had awhile back so it's not there. maybe someone knows which one Im talking about.

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/show...t=steering+box