another update: the bronco is back on the road.
the steering is as sloppy as before, though.
here's what went wrong:
i went through measuring the recirculating balls again.
the measurements were not as consistent as i had hoped for, but i believe i sorted them out.
the odd ball i thought was too large was actually too
small. i had missed that the scale on the micrometer only went to .50 - it was half a rotation off, so smaller than the other ones.
so i decided to slap the box back together. setting the input shaft preload was actually easy, readings were consistent.
BUT: as soon as i put the sector shaft in, things got out of whack. there was actually no way to lower the sector shaft to get that tighter spot in the middle as needed.
it started to get a higher torque reading on the left and right, not in the middle. so i came to the conclusion that the box really is too worn to properly adjust. i think this is where i went wrong the last time. i aimed for that tight spot in the middle, but failed to see it was binding on the outsides.
i am very much aware of the warnings to not set a box too tight, as it can bind - but still, this happened.
i put the box in, just to drive it around - as the mustang, as mentioned above, had problems that came back. so it's not the coil, and i now suspect a failing pertronix unit. will put the points back in tomorrow.
i ordered parts at summitracing for the bronco, parts will arrive next friday.
new borgeson steering box
hoses to connect it to the ford pump
coupler from the borgeson box to a 3/4 dd shaft
24" 3/4 dd shaft
coupler 3/4 dd to 3/4 dd
i will have to grind off the old coupler from the upper shaft and will have a friend mill it down to a dd shape.
i hope this will be a weekend project.