Ross steering box rebuild

[cubchub]

my ford lgt165 has a ross box in it also. It looked good when I tore it apart.
greased it and adjusted it and its still sloppy. I noticed the box assembly was flexing when turning the wheel. Welded in a extra brace and it helped some.

[J-Mech]

Originally Posted by brudder

So I went to put this back together today. I noticed the grease is bridging in the box. I used a regular multipurpose #2 lithium grease. I don't think this will work.

I saw some guys use JD corn header grease. I was worried that was going to be too thin because the box isn't really sealed. I think the corn header grease is just a #0 grease. Is that what I need or do I just have crappy grease?

There is a grease zerk on the gearbox, so regular gun grease will be fine. I don't know what exactly it is you used, but any grease will bridge. Except the cornhead grease, but that would drip out and make a mess. I'd say, put more in it. But I also would use whatever grease you use in your grease gun, so that when you grease it every 25 or so hours of use, it gets the same grease.

[brudder]

I wanted to provide a final update on this. I pumped this full of grease as Jonathan recommended and put it back together. I adjusted best I can. It's definitely better than it was but still has more slop than I was expecting. I've got another one of these I need to do in the future on a tractor with 1800 hours, so I will plan on buying a new pin and see how tight that gets. I think there is probably just more slop than I was expecting, even when adjusted properly.

While I had the box off, I also cleaned up the CV joint that connects the upper and lower steering and regreased it. I also replaced the o-ring because it was crushed by the factory. This re-packing is recommended by other members in other threads because that joint doesn't have a zerk. The factory grease was like peanut butter but there is not a lot of stress or heat on it so it was just fine. One interesting thing was that I only had two of the four ball bearings inside. I thought someone had been in there and took two out, but then I looked at the parts diagram and they only use two from the factory. Since it looked like new, I left as is with just the two bearings.

Thanks all who helped me in this thread.

[Merk]

Originally Posted by J-Mech

There is a grease zerk on the gearbox, so regular gun grease will be fine. I don't know what exactly it is you used, but any grease will bridge. Except the cornhead grease, but that would drip out and make a mess. I'd say, put more in it. But I also would use whatever grease you use in your grease gun, so that when you grease it every 25 or so hours of use, it gets the same grease.

I use corn head grease for years. no drips or leaks.