how to tighten up the steering
 

I have a 1650 and the steering is a little sloppy. The tie rods seem to be pretty tight. I can see the front axle move back and forth when I change directions. I guess the first thing would be to fix that. Any good suggestions? I think the u channel has spread open some. When looking at my steering shaft the piece that is shown with an arrow, move back and forth out of the shaft while turning the wheel. I have no plan of removing the shaft anytime soon so can I do any fixing when it is in the machine. I see a steering upgrade kit that uses some thrust bearings. Can this be added while in the cub? I also saw about a screw with a conical end that sometimes requires some clean up. Is this serviceable without removing the whole thing? I’m just looking on making her a little tighter.

the bolt that runs through the box just below yur arrow with the two nuts on it could be tightened up a little. but i would suspect that it would need to be pulled and rebuilt since these steering boxes tend to go bad after forty years or so. :biggrin2:

Steering can loosen up from top to bottom. The axle U channel, the tie rods and linkages, the 2 bolts that hold the steering box to the chassis and the plastic bushing that drops into the steering tube to keep things centered. The most common will be the pinion inside the gearbox itself. Build the box and tighten everything up. Replace the axle pivot pin with a large bolt and pull the channel back together.

Durn, that was everything I was going to say!! :biggrin2:

:beerchug:

I did 2 this year, if you do not take the steering column out of the tractor, the best thing to do is just disregard the slop.

The tapered pin inside the box can only be removed after the column is out of the tractor, that is where most of the play will be found.

My 2 steer so perfect, I do not feel the "upgrade" could make them any better!!

I even have the bearing sitting in my parts drawer, left over from a project 20 years ago.

Bite the bullet and pull the column, you will be most pleased!!

I put 2 machined shims in the front on either side of the axle took the slop down to nothing.