Well, one hurdle on the road to the road for the 130 has finally passed. After several frustrations I have finished the "freshening" of the steering box and have it remounted in the rig. Sure looks nice in there all alone... too bad the steering wheel is upside downs now!

Of course this all started because I wanted to replace the grommets.

The fun began when I realized that the flange on the shaft needed to come off or the shaft from the steering wheel had to come forward four inches. Deciding that moving the steering wheel was probably harder (in retrospect, I think not!), I proceeded to attempt to remove the flange. No freakin' way! OK, remove the box and the whole assembly can just slide up and I'll be OK. Again, trouble.

The ZF's mounting holes had corroded around the attaching bolts. two came out OK but the third would not move for love or money. No hammer was big enough, no press tough enough. A local mechanic drilled on it until he got nervous and I took it back. Three sized larger and I was able to drive the remains out. I was impressed with the centering skill of the mechanic as the piece I drove out was a nice spiral and no housing material was touched!

OK, put it back. Nooooooo, way too easy. I checked the oil first and found it to be a rather nasty shade of brown and rather gooeyer than I thought reasonable. Also, the seals appeared to be just a little cavalier about keeping the goo inside. Right, time to take the thing apart.
Again, all went well and I was able to get new seals from my local NAPA but the gosh darned flange WOULD NOT COME OFF THE SHAFT.

Several days (literally) of messing with it finally yielded a winning combination: 3/8" drive 1/2" socket, 3" extension, bearing separator, medium thickness plain washer and a universal puller... And lots of PB blaster and muscle. I wish I had my press out of the rental!

After all the cussing I was pleasantly surprised upon reassembly as it went together like a dream. The only nasty part was sliding the input shaft a looooong way down through the input seal... lots of oil made me feel better and I was thankful it had been sand-blasted of all the crud it had accumulated.

I was also fortunate in that the plain bearings on the output shaft (sector shaft) were in very good condition as were the rollers on the input shaft (worm shaft). The flange? It drove on easily once cleaned.

One thing I noted (and was extremely grateful for) was that all the parts had alignment marks on them that were easily used once all was clean. The flange had a "key spline" (an extra large spline) that made incorrect assembly largely impossible. Of course if you decide to chase out the threads please be aware that the ZF box (made in Germany) is metric! Don't toss those bolts in the general bucket as finding them later may be an adventure.

This time, I put a heavy coating of anti-sieze inside the box's mounting holes to combat future corrosion.

Now I get to run a new wire up the shaft (note: do it from the bottom) and yank the wheel so I can invert it!

Question for those who have had the box off. Should there be distance pieces inside the frame? My car did not have but one (lower front). I'm wondering if I'm looking at more evidence of collision damage/funky repair.

Mike!