Steering rebuild and upgrade
 

I am going to pull the steering column in my 782. The steering has a lot of slop in it. I plan on getting one of the upgrade kits, but do I also need to get a rebuild kit as well? They're $140.00 on the auction site. Didn't know if the rebuild kit was necessary, or if a good cleaning and repack of the lower column would do the job.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Depends on how bad yours is. Take it apart and take a look. It may just need to be cleaned, re lubed and adjusted. They are pretty simple. The service manual will explain how to do them.

The one that was in my cub was the same way, totally roached...when i pulled the plug out of the bottom, all the bearings and remnants of the cages and pieces of metal just fell out..not too mention the housing was cracked.....i am lucky to know where a salvage yard for tractors is, and just took my chances and pulled one...it was Much better shape...i only needed the bottom bearing cage, found it at the farmers implement store....made the foam gaskets, cleaned everything, made my own cam follower out of a grade 8 bolt, re assembled and got a thrust bearing from mcmaster...works great, no slop, one finger steer, and less than 40 bucks....one thing i would recommend is to find a little "whip" for a remote grease zerk, put mine in the frame...i hope this can maybe help you some...if you need a pic of the remote zerk i can get one....good luck

Here's where I got the parts for the steering upgrade I did on my 1200. The gaskets and bearings I got from cub cadet. I made a new cam follower stud from a grade 8 bolt.http://ihcubcadetparts.net46.net/1_2_Products.html

I rebuilt the steering unit on my 1811 and what I found out was that the shaft with the worm gear is the heart of the whole thing. If it is worn or rough and pitted then the kit will not do any good. That's what I found on mine and that is why I decided to go with power steering. Mine was worn to the point, even though it was still smooth, that the guide bolt would bottom out before the sides of the gear would make good contact with it. BTW, after you install the kit it will feel great on the bench. The real test is when you put it back into the CC and you can expect to have to re-adjust the bolt a little. When I figured how much it was going to cost for a new(used) steering column I decided then that PS would only be a few hundred more. The 1811 has the two turn model and is highly desirable therefore it cost a lot more for the shaft. Good luck:beerchug: