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Old 10-19-2006, 10:17 AM
DustyRusty DustyRusty is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 32
I am not familiar with the steering boxes on the Benz, however, if it is like the steering boxes on the American cars of the 1960's, there is more to adjusting them than just tightening on the top adjuster. On those boxes, you should take the pitman arm off the box first, and then adjust the large hex nut that is at the end of the steering box first. This removes the play in the steering shaft. Then you adjust the nut on the top of the box that adjusts the play in the sector shaft ball and race. The sector shaft is egg shaped, so when the car is straight ahead, the top of the egg is at 12 o'clock. If you over tighten this adjustment, you will have a tighter feeling steering box for only a short time. The chrome balls will be under pressure when they roll over the top of the egg shaped sector and the chrome plating on them will crack and start to fall off. Once this happens, it is time for a replacement box. It is very important to have the steering wheel set at top dead center, when making this adjustment. The reason for removing the pitman arm is to remove any resistance from the system and to make sure that you are not trying to remove play that isn't in the steering box, but might be thought to be. On my 123, I logged over 1/4 million miles and never touched the steering box, but it did need other steering parts to return it to its original handling characteristics... Dusty....

Last edited by DustyRusty; 10-19-2006 at 10:11 PM. Reason: spelling error
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