[T3] Steering box play

[Sean Bartnik]

Indeed, on initial assembly (or when rebuilding) you choose a shim of appropriate thickness for that spot. Then the adjustment screw and shim are secured in place by the snap ring. 

The bottom of the adjustment screw is basically a bearing surface and it does wear during use though if lubricated properly that should be a slow process. 

I see what you're saying now, the adjustment is there for adjusting the play between the worm and roller as they wear in service. If the bottom of the adjuster screw is wearing or the snap ring has broken, then yeah you would not be able to adjust that out with the adjuster screw. 

Based on Tim Shreve's extensive steering box thread on the Samba, the TRW boxes do still use that shim. They've cut cost in some other areas it seems such as machining QC on the housings, cheap bearings, etc. They also have eliminated the brass bushing in the top cover, leaving the roller shaft to bear directly on the aluminum of the top cover. 

Tim is having new shim sets manufactured in the original VW sizes for his rebuild kits both for the roller shaft shims and the worm shaft shims. 

-Sean

> On Mar 26, 2017, at 11:04 PM, Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:
> 
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>> On 26 Mar 2017 at 20:31, Sean Bartnik wrote:
>> 
>> Up-and-down play at the shaft the drop arm bolts to (aka the roller
>> shaft) is adjustable via the small adjuster screw on the top cover of
>> the steering box.  
> 
> That's not quite right. The adjustment screw should be captured in 
> the top of the shaft by a snap ring. The amount of play in there is 
> adjusted by exchanging shims. You're supposed to chose a shim that 
> allows the screw to turn in the shaft with minimum play. See the 
> Bentley, Ch 7, pg. 35. There's a very good photo, Fig. 10-22.
> 
> It's possible that the aftermarket TRW steering boxes have eliminated 
> this feature. I can see that this would be one way to make the boxes 
> cheaper.  
> 
> -- 
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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