I blowed up my steering box.

So I pulled the steering box out of my car the other day, to sand down and paint over some surface rust where fluid had leaked over the years. Apparently, while it was out, the shaft came dislodged from within the box, and the bearing on the end of the shaft fell out. Having never really worked with a steering box before, I didn't realize this. Put the steering box back in, put everything back together, go to turn the wheel, and something doesn't feel quite right. Feels very wrong, actually. So I pull the steering box again, and take it apart. This is what I find:

Oops. It went on the end of this shaft:

Clearly, I have two options here.

1. replace that bearing. Where can I find another? I check Mazdatrix and Rockauto and all I found was seal kits, not what I need right now.

2. FC subframe swap. I know where I can get an FC subframe for cheap, but I finally got some wheels I like for my car and don't want to go through that again. Is there any way I can keep a 4x110 bolt pattern and swap to an FC subframe? That's a really tempting option if I don't have to buy new wheels. Breaking parts is always a good time to upgrade.

Try Respeed, or just look in the parts section of www.RX7Club.com

All of RE-Speed's steering stuff is $900 conversion kits that, while awesome, are more than I can afford right now.

Just find a parts car to salvage a bearing from

And when you get the used box, don't take it out however you did this one. I can't really imagine how you did that.....

Streetwiseguy wrote: And when you get the used box, don't take it out however you did this one. I can't really imagine how you did that.....

It was more the reinstalling and turning the wheel that did it in. I didn't know it had come off, and it got chewed up by the gear.

At least you tried to rebuild it, instead of being a part swapper.

Bearings are easy. As was previously posted by Wonko look up bearings for your nearest supplier. They can be referenced by #, dimensions and type or application. Your local NAPA store may even be able to help you. I was able to find a replacement rear bearing for a Deutsch-Bonnet engine this way. I had been told by the cars owner it was only available in France at a ridiculous price.

Makes most sense: Find another gearbox.

FC subframe swap? By the time all is said and done, unless you have mad fab skillz, you'll be into it for longer than it will take to find another box. If you don't have an FC engine already, it'll be fun trying to mount the engine. BTDT driving it around.

I have a spare steering box/column assembly or two from a 79 RX-7,and also one from an 83 if you are interested in buying one.

Chris

Wonkothesane wrote: I'm not sure what College Station is like, but I have a store some-what local called Bearings and Drives Unlimited, it's an industrial supply shop that deals specifically with, surprisingly, bearings and drives :) I'll bet if you search for "bearings" around your area (i use switchboard.com), you can find something of the same, and take it there, along with the box. They should be able to find you something that works.

Bearings and drives has a store in metro Atlanta also.

I'll take the crushed bearing and the shaft with a good, seemingly identical, bearing still on it to a few places and see if I can't find a suitable unit. Thanks for the advice.

Probably order a new seal kit while I'm at it too.

Jake

Update: No bearing shops around here can source a replacement bearing, and the only parts car near me has been crushed. Anyone else have any ideas?

SA/FB boxes should be plentiful on rx7club.com. I know Toyman on this board has 1 FB box that he got from me, I think he might have another as well, see if he wants to turn loose of one.

You can do the FC swap and keep the 4x110 bolt pattern by having a machine shop redrill the front hubs.

84/85 steering boxes are actually hard to come by on RX7Club, I've been watching there for a while.

I thought about redrilling FC hubs, but everything I found showed that they aren't constant thickness. I'm sure that's dependant on the exact hub style, but by and large they don't appear to be redrillable.

unevolved wrote: 84/85 steering boxes are actually hard to come by on RX7Club, I've been watching there for a while.

Really? I thought they'd be essentially interchangeable.

I thought about redrilling FC hubs, but everything I found showed that they aren't constant thickness. I'm sure that's dependant on the exact hub style, but by and large they don't appear to be redrillable.

Back in my mazspeed days, I saw somebody make adapter rings to put FC hubs on FB spindles. Then he redrilled the hubs to 110mm, and made brackets for the four-piston calipers. I forget if he used the large or small rotors.

In my experience, good 110mm wheels are valuable enough that they will pay for GSL-SE rear axles/brakes and a set of four-lug wheels.

Knurled wrote: Really? I thought they'd be essentially interchangeable.

I know there's a difference between 79-08, 81-83, and 84-85, and between manual and power. I don't know exactly where those differences are and what they affect, however.

Back in my mazspeed days, I saw somebody make adapter rings to put FC hubs on FB spindles. Then he redrilled the hubs to 110mm, and made brackets for the four-piston calipers. I forget if he used the large or small rotors. In my experience, good 110mm wheels are valuable enough that they will pay for GSL-SE rear axles/brakes and a set of four-lug wheels.

I finally found a set of 4x110 wheels I really like, and 4x114 wheels are just as hard to find in the same offset (7", +7) as 4x110 are. I'd like to keep my wheels and just run a GSL rear. I'm sure it can be done, but the car doesn't even have an engine in it right now. I need to get it sorted before I start adding more layers of complexity.

Maybe get in touch with mavalgear.com They have done many power to manual conversions for the FD guys. Steering racks is their biz.

I can not remember the name of the scrapyard that I bought mine from but it was in Washington PA or New Castle PA. They shipped it out and I had it within 3 days. Good luck

There's one in Dallas for $50. AAA Dallas Auto Salvage, Inc. USA-TX(Dallas) 1-800-803-0993 or 1-972-286-5644

There's actually one at a yard here in Evansville too, if you ever find yourself in southern Indiana for some odd reason.

One thing to bear in mind - FC hubs have approximately the same hub face depth as GSL-SE front rotors, so this will remove 15mm from your effective offset.

At least, FC wheels on FC suspension in the front, and FC wheels on GSL-SE suspension in the rear, looks properly proportioned, not like one end was sticking way out or way in.