Studebaker Champ PU 8E Steering Adjustment

[bluetaxi]

How do I remove excess dead zone steering play from my '63 Champ 8E Pickup. I can turn the steering wheel about 6 inches in the center before getting wheel response. I read the manual about adding or removing shims under the steering top cover and measuring inch-pounds of torque, but the difference between 1 to 3 inch pounds and the 4-7 inch pounds at the "high spot" are both below what even registers on my torque wrench. What is the "down and dirty" easy way to remove the excess play from my Champ steering?

[Guest stude8]

We can assume this is a T cab half ton with TL-12 steering gear? They had 5 various steering gears at that time but all used the same basic worm and sector system so the faults are usually common to all. The Pitman shaft has two "Worm Follower" studs that engage the steering column shaft "Worm Gear" and wear occurs on both the stud faces and the worm gear helical groove. This wear is concentrated in the center of travel wear most activity takes place. Since you seldom make full rotation turns the far ends of the worm have little wear as compared to the center of travel. In the normal adjustment of nominal lifetime wear the gear box cover (facing engine) has a shim stack that can be reduced by removing shims in .003 to .005 thickness until the worm follower studs nest deeper into the worn worm groove. This will restore the steering wheel lost motion to a tolerable amount.

Unfortunately now that the worm is 25 years past its normal life span the wear is so bad the shim adjustment cannot compensate for the wear that is present.

Removing shims enough to correct center of travel slop will result in the studs siezing in the worm groove when rotated to an extreme left or right turn condition where the groove is still unworn.

The answer to your question of how to correct the wear is to find a NOS worm and shaft for your gear box (item 1304-1 in Studebaker truck parts catalog) also replacing 1306-1 pitman shaft and studs will help. Since this has happened to almost all the existant T Cab trucks every owner has hunted down what ever spares remained years ago (myself included for my 1962 7E T cab).

A present day solution would be to have your steering worm gear electro plated to replace the worn surfaces with a Nickle or other wear resistant metal and then surface grind it to original dimensions. Not cheap or easy task.

Alternatively you could grind the worm helical groove end to end to equal the worn center dimension then the worm follower studs would move freely through out the entire range of travel from hard left to hard right turns and the shim stack could be revised to produce correct rotational torque values.

Post and Cam for TL-12 gear box is Illustration 1304-1 part number 1692896 for left hand drive trucks 7E & 8E - 5; 7; 10; 12.

Here are photos of my 62 T cab 7E-12 during and after restoration.

Good luck hunting,

Stude8

[bluetaxi]

Thank you for your prompt, informative and thorough explantion - If no one else has told you lately, we all really appreciate your responses and excellent advice on this forum!

I think your explanation is still correct, but my steering gear is the Ross SE-54 used only on the 1/2 and 3/4 ton 8E series. It uses a cam lever stud. I will try to remove shims, but suspect from the symptoms that the worm is worn as you described.

[bluetaxi]

Turns out steering box was OK - it was a worn steering reach rod from the Pitman Arm to the Idler Lever. Replaced it with one from Studebaker International - all is now fine with the steering...

[Guest stude8]

Boy that was a stroke of luck, a bolt on fix instead of a major rehab of the gear box. Keep those king pins well greased so you don't have to do them next. Stude8