willysmjeeps.com

Has anyone used the worm shaft sold by Krage Motorsports (I assume by others as well)?

The top of mine was destroyed by PO so much that they welded the steering wheel to the top of the shaft.

Thanks

How bad are the welds and how deep? If you have access to some shop equipment maybe you could grind the weld off, pull or cut the steering wheel off, turn down the end of the shaft and put some new threads on it.

This might be too much work and not worth it if the worm is worn out anyway.

There is basically nothing left of the threads...the welds are at the top of the wheel surface. I have also replaced everything between the wheels and the steering box and have verified that the king pin bearings are OK and I still have a bit of death wobble. I figure the box needs a rebuild.

Thanks for the reply.

So they stripped the threads and decided to replace the nut with a little bird crap (weld) - wonderful. That needs to go onto the bubba list of hacks.

You probably need to get the wheel off anyway to get the cap on the steering box off. I think my idea would work. You can always put a smaller thread on the end or bush it back to size.

I like to salvage stuff because my emphasis is tinkering in metal but may not be worth it in this case.

some experience, small rebuild done last weekend....

In 2005 I bought my M38 completely dismantled. We replaced a lot of parts and build everything back up. The jeep drives fine and after a few little repairs everything stays OK. I did not rebuild the steering box and transmission, this was already don by previous owner. I always had some little playing in the steering box but I thought this was normal.
Two years ago we did a complete GPW restoration, and we rebuild most everything also
the steering box. The GPW has no playing in the steering. So I decided to rebuild steering box in the M38 after the summer period. After a lot of reading on this forum, I decided to do the job with the box still in the jeep. I don’t want to damage my paintjob. I removed the left fender.
With a tierodend puller I removed the pitman arm, removed the old bushings very carefully ( the worst job, besides draining the thick oil ) . With a long thread, some washers and two nuts a pulled the new bushings in the housing. Before that the bushings where for two days in the refrigerator. Then a new sector shaft in the box together with some grease. After closing the box I filled it with SAE 145 gear oil. I left the worm shaft and bearings in place, they seemed in good condition, and had no playing. But what a difference now, I have zero playing in the steering anymore driving straight forward, as it should be. One half turn left or right I feel playing in the box, what I think is normal.
With this small rebuild, easy to do I have a jeep that drives much better !
The sector shaft and bushings came from Walcks, they need no reaming everything works fine. A small rebuild is possible with the steering box in place. It takes about 4 hours.

Erik

Thanks for the good replies.

Normally, I would do my best to save the original part, but in this instance I'm concerned with safety. I forgot to mention that the adjusting bolt on the box was all the way in when I got the jeep and the box had no lubricant in it. I have been keeping it full of lube per the manual.

I'm sure there's tons of wear in there.

Thanks again. If I remember, I'll take pictures so everyone can see the wonderful job that was done.