Ford 1700 steering arm lesson learned

[JC-jetro]

Howdy folks,

Here I am with another battle story and associated lessons learned. Hopefully other 1700 owners will be able to avoid the pickle I got myself in. I have been working hard to keep my shooting lanes open. Combination of lots of heat, lots of rain and lots of dry caused some super weeds in the back of my property. We only hay the front 12 acres open field.

As I was maneuvering ever so precisely around the trees and due to thick vegetation managed to hook the left tire on a stomp while moving slowly forward and mowing. It only took me an split second to clutch and tame the beast but my momentum caused the left front wheel to turn CCW for about 90 degrees. That rotational movement was carried thru the steering rod to steering arm. That was beyond the maximum rotational play of steering box. As a result my steering arm was over extended to the point that bend the arm but did not break it... thanks god.








I end up going back to the barn making mainly left turns as my right turn radius was close to width of a football field I put the front axle up of jack stands and started my postmortem analysis and realized I had a physical limit on the front wheel to hopefully stop the wheel rotation without any damage.




Then I proceeded to take the steering off.The pics below are self explanatory. I noticed a very small surface crack where the arm attached to the steering box. I ground a very shallow groove there for stress relief. I then used a HF pipe vice and a 4 foot cheater bar to bend it to submission and managed to crack the base of HF vise. There we go again for another HF tool that sucks. I then took it to work and went to the guys shop, called up a beefy fellow, a heavy vice and couple of other guys to hold on to the table and with assistance of 6 foot cheater and no go. I just did not want to snap the arm in two. I ended up going to plan B and heated the sucker up and slowly straightened up to just about where it was. I left it to cool very slowly on the vice. I then took it home and used my cheesy mig welder and put a bead where I cut the groove. To my surprise it took the weld real well. The arm is cast but it appears to have enough iron to weld nicely.









A bit of ford blue enamel out of the can and my steering arm never looked better.

Tomorrow morning , I'll be putting it back together and and will adjust or try to adjust to see if I can take any flex off of the steering arm at full rotation to the left or right. I can easily move the ball joint in and out to adjust horizontal travel.

I don't believe anyone ever worked on it but in my estimation you should not able to ever flex the steering arm when you hit the wheel limit.

I appreciate your inputs.

JC,

 

[BG4985]

JC- great job on the fix, I hope that is a lesson that i will never have to learn firsthand. At the advice of old1500 i prefer to run over flowerbeds as they are more forgiving on my componets. :thumbsup:

 

[JC-jetro]

JC- great job on the fix, I hope that is a lesson that i will never have to learn firsthand.s. :thumbsup:

That makes two of us brother

As long as lessons learned don't include lims or dear life that it's cool with me. As they say " you don't know what you don't know"

JC<

 

[brucew44guns]

You are a man who makes do with what he has, only you do it in royal fashion. Very nice pics, and excellent repair job. I well imagine you getting calls from time to time from your friends, begging for help.

 

[JC-jetro]

You are a man who makes do with what he has, only you do it in royal fashion. Very nice pics, and excellent repair job. I well imagine you getting calls from time to time from your friends, begging for help.

Thank you for your kind words. It is funny what you said. I have buddies both at work or otherwise that call me. They know they should send me pics from different angels and then they call me and we go over the repair over the phone. Technology is great when is worked efficiently. I can have video conference to go over a project including the progress pictures.. Just can't beat it.

JC,

 

[old1500]

I would have never thought the arm would bend at that point. I would surely have figured it would have cracked the box, snapped the end off the sector shaft on the adjustment side, or sheared the cover screws before that arm bent. The ends of those sector shafts are real flimsy....I know because the ears had broken off mine where the adjustment screw fits. The new shaft I purchased is solid on that end and the adjustment screw sits down into a recess in the shaft held by an internal clip....much, much stronger and provides more bearing surface for that side of the shaft.

I regret your problem, glad you got it fixed and am now very confident that the steering box and sector shaft will take a lot more punishment than I had ever imagined.

Guys...I been thinking (I know....that can be dangerous), but these turf tires seem to "hunt" for stuff to get into, especially when you attempt to climb-over things like small downed trees, stumps or the neighbors dog you hate so much. I have concluded that the regular narrow tire has to be much easier on the steering gear. The tendency for the turf-tire to take a 90-degree turn on it's own seems to be much greater.

JC....I have one more thing to offer...I am glad you do not have any broken fingers, or a cracked wrist. You have either learned well to always be able to let-go of the wheel or have arms and hands like the Hulk. I use to work with loggers during my high-school summers and we would bunch the logs we pulled up by bumping them with the front wheel. I learned my lesson well as a 15-year old when I dislocated a thumb. It only took one time for me to learn how to "throw the steering-wheel away".

 

[old1500]

JC....there was one thing I thought of that I failed to mention above. The pivot-bushings in mine were shot. I replaced those bushings, but my front axle still has some "play" in this area of connection. I know you are aware of what I am talking about, because you had a blow-up in another thread when I was working on my steering-slop issue and brought this to my attention.

If the front wheel hits the stop and there is any slack at all in this junction...the wheel can continue to move to the rear as far as the slack will let it go. In any event, it is still a bit puzzling as to how that arm could get bent without breaking something in the steering gear box. Sounds to me like the sector shaft teeth were not exactly centered in the brass nut teeth (so called) on the steering shaft worm gear and it either bottomed or topped out locking the steering gears.

I am just guessing. You have a lot more experience with these things than I ever will.

 

[jinman]

Nice job JC! You fixed it and made it look purrrdy too.:thumbsup:

 

[sandman2234]

I had a similar problem with the Ford 1100 4x4, except it bent the link running from front to rear. I straightened it and ordered a new one, but never put it on, just kept straightening it every time I bent it, which was regularly, since once weakened, it would bend easier. Got to a point that the point of typical bend had fractures in the steel from all the straightening/bending. Sold the tractor and the new owner did the same thing, except this time the part failed. He just ground down the ends, and welded it back together, then told me about it, when I advised him I had the spare part for it. He never did need it, and the part is still in the garage (somewhere??)
David from jax

 

[JC-jetro]

Thanks guys,

Hey old. I'm just a mild mannered geeky engineer and have no beefy bicep's to boot I'll use mechanical advantage any chance I get to even things out. I have no play in the bushing you were talking about. I too am amazed and even happier it did not bust the gears in the sector shaft. I think clutching ASAP helped not to go above yield point on the arm. I put it back together this am and am done for the season as far as brush hogging, all shooting lanes are open to greet my garden marauders. I hope I have not oversold my tractor experience. My 1700 is my only tractor that I have ever owned but I like mechanical stuff.

Jim: The purrdiest part of my tractor is my steering arm now and it sure looks out of place. By the way, I adjust it to when the steering knuckle hits the stop I'm skosh short of final sector shaft travel. It appears to me if I pull the same stunt again the tab should break off before bending the arm.. at least I hope so. My turning radius is just a bit longer which does not bother me much.

Sandman: I was even debating to maybe making a shear bolt setup for the arm so I have something expendable to replace easily. I still might do that. I was surprised how well the arm took the weld, one root pass, and a fillet weld to add more strength.

JC,