Help I stripped the adjustment screw on my steering box
 

I took the lock nut off of my steering box. Then when I attempted to turn the adjustment screw counter clockwise. I stripped it pretty good. It didnt even budge.I had a 6mm hex on the end of a few extensions. I still have abut 2 in. of play in the wheel. I feel as though I may be stuck in a catch 22 situation. If you guys have any ideas or suggestions I am all ears.

Sad news.
 

Replace the gearbox.
This is safety = yours and others.
Sounds like you have bad rag joints in your steering column and/or bad steering parts.

Is it completely rounded? You needed a new gear box anyway right?

Did you strip out the hex hole or the screw itself?

If you stripped out the hole...tighten it back up and live with the play (although that is quite a bit of play and SHOULD eventually be taken care of).

Now if you stripped the screw threads...thats another story. :)

Please clarify :)

i tried this adjustment once but i never could break the bolt loose:)

maybe that was a positive thing? im pretty inexperienced with tinkering.

get to the u pull it yard and get one! itll likely have just as much play, but thats easily tested, huh? itll be cheap too.

I srtipped the hex hole not the screw its self. I do have another problem. I live on the island of Maui in Hawaii.I think that I might have a little trouble finding one localy.Ill still try finding one here anyway.Thanks for all your help fellas. Although I didnt want to admit to myself I had to find a new one but now I can see that there is no getting around it.

be nice to the boys here and theyll surely help ya out;)

i think i am going to pull a part tomorrow, would you like me to check the steering boxes they have for play? now that i think about it... i might do the same thing for my shlomo, they ought to not be too high.

Just becuae the hex is stripped otu doesn't mean that the bolt is toast too...it jus tmeans you can't adjust it.

So the car is atleast mobile...obviously the steering play is pretty excessive but it should not change adjustment on you if you lock the locknut back down while looking for a new box.

I'm going to ask at the dealer today if they can try to adjust as much play out of my wheel with that as possible....hopefully they can get rid of some, I have around 1" of play.....

Used Steering Boxes
 

Don't forget to crawl underneath the car and look for play in all the track rod joints and etc. , my '78 300CD had a loose steering box so I adjusted it and then felt a bit of play and found the center track rod had a bad end on it , took me all of 30 minutes to change it out last night including clean up time , of course I also discovered a bad steering dampner so I'm going back in soon .

DON'T buy a used steering box unles the seller has adjusted it to _ZERO_ play 1st. ~ there's far too many good used ones in Pick-A-Part yards and one of the guys here will help you out , if you find a junker , try adjusting the box _before_ you pull it out.....

2" of play is serious , get it fixed before you wreck and kill your self or some kids :eek:

2" of play is so not dangerous. what i find dangerous is getting into a car that doesnt have the play, i wander all over the road in my neon and it has perfect steering.

my car has pleeeenty of steering play and ive never even come close to an accident in the year ive had it.

i almost dont want to repair it. i feel like itll lose some of its charm(am i nutty?)

The car is mobile for the moment .If any of you guys find a good deal on a 123 steeringbox for my '82 240d, I would be most greatful.

When looking for a donar cars steering box do not neglect the gas 123 cars. A lot of them have far less total milage and are scrapped because of mechanical/ accidents /rust issues. In my opinion they might have a better steering box. At least worth checking.

i have found
 

that you cant wear out the steering boxes (or nearly so). i would try to force a slightly bigger us allen into the hole and try again. be sure to get it all the way in. this is why you buggered the first one. use pb blaster and let it soak overnight and try again. changing them is a lot of work and they usually will adjust.

tom w

Not sure how much, but 123s are designed to have a certain amount of steering wheel play. My father told me a few times about how he was looking over the records on the car, and found that MB checked the play with a special tool. Excessive play is not good though. Get under the car and start tugging around.

An acceptable amount of steering play is VERY useful for when you are traveling around in the triple digits. 2inches? Probably not...

but the standard...what is it...20mm or something? That is handy and actually makes the car nicer to drive...but too much is annoying.

When you tighten, be sure to have the front end up in the air and turn the wheel left/right with the engine off and feel for binding. Binding bad AND dangerous. Slightly loose is better than too tight...but any extreme is unacceptable.

i asked them to do that at the dealer when i had an alignment and they quoted $110 and another hour. hah! i told them hell no ill do it myself. took me ten min.

The spec for steering wheel play is 25mm (1") so don't get all excited about having that - it is the correct amount. As for 2", that is excessive and should be addressed at some point but is hardly what I would call an urgent or emergency problem.

The same thing occured here, so all I do is loosen that locknut and turn that bolt? Which direction to remove play? I don't want all of it gone, maybe just a little would be nice, I have around an inch or so currently....our 83 has virtually none, maybe 2cm like I saw mentioned earlier........

They also said that the car will never drive perfectly (steering) until I change out my weak rear springs/shocks. They said since it sits lower in the rear it throws off the front a little bit too. Hmmmm.....guess thats a project for next summer or something. With the alignment it drives very very nice now though, its very pleasant to be able to let go of the wheel and have it track straight down the road! :D

anti clockwise
 

will adjust it.

if it is sitting low in back and the shocks are old i would change them first. new bilsteins will raise it up some. we debate how much. brian may have actually documented it.

tom w

That sounds better than doing the springs.....is replacing the shocks very difficult? I'd be willing to try it myself if it is not too hard....I know the rear shocks are dead, the car bounces in back quite a bit when I go over larger bumps or "waves" in the road, and the rear of the car can easily be made bounce by hand on the trunk rail. Whats the procedure to swap out the shocks? Do the springs have to come out too?

If you have a sagging rear end, you need spring. I don't THINK shocks would compensate much as they don't have much resistance, relatively speaking. Maybe raise a little, but your springs are probably tired, it's common. As for replacing shocks, it's very easy. Just remove the old ones and put new ones in. You have to remove the back seat so you can get to the upper mounting nut. The bottom bolts are straight forward. Since you live in MI, go through first and PB Blast the bottom nuts and bolts. The top nut won't need it since it's in the cabin. When you buy shocks, make sure they come with all the other hardware such as shock bushings, I think they do though. If not, buy those since they're dirt cheap and come off when the shocks do.

Thanks
David

Well, I am pretty sure I would need the springs as well as it does sit a couple inches low, are the rear springs dangerous or hard to replace on your own at home? I'd be willing to do all of it myself if it doesn't risk my life in the process.... :eek: Parts total for both springs and shocks etc is only about $325 or so, probably less. Not bad at all. But. How hard are they to change?

Also the service tech at the stealer said the rear springs were weak, and he's always been right before, so I trust his advice.

Your rear springs are weak. The only specialty took you'll need is the MB spring compressor which Brian Carlton rents out in the "tool rental" thread.

As for adjustment of the steering boxes. Mine is excessively sloppy and I've adjusted it to no avail. I wanted to go to the junkyard and pull one but why can't I adjust it out of the car? I would think you could do a better job with it sitting on the bench and moving the arm, etc.

Thanks
David

more of a case of you can compare "feel" in the car real readily before you take time to pull it....and find out its no better. It will feel different on the bench than it will in the car.