Steering Column Worm Gear

[RichardG]

After 10 happy years the steering in my Zed is driving me to the point of changing the car it has become intolerable.
At times the effort required to move it off the straight and narrow had got ridiculous, the obvious diagnosis being the infamous sticky steering.

I have in the past lubricated the UJs and have recently tried lubricating the worm gear via the grease nipple fix, it has helped a lot, but not cured the problem.
I have resigned myself to potentially changing the worm gear but looking on Real OEM I was unable to locate a part number for it.

But before I spend more of my hard earned I wondered if anyone had actually removed the worm gear and if they have just what was involved in doing it, if you have removed it did you by chance open it up to lubricate it or investigate whatever it is that causes the stickiness.

Here's hoping but not holding my breath.

 

[stupot67]

After 10 happy years the steering in my Zed is driving me to the point of changing the car it has become intolerable.
At times the effort required to move it off the straight and narrow had got ridiculous, the obvious diagnosis being the infamous sticky steering.

I have in the past lubricated the UJs and have recently tried lubricating the worm gear via the grease nipple fix, it has helped a lot, but not cured the problem.
I have resigned myself to potentially changing the worm gear but looking on Real OEM I was unable to locate a part number for it.

But before I spend more of my hard earned I wondered if anyone had actually removed the worm gear and if they have just what was involved in doing it, if you have removed it did you by chance open it up to lubricate it or investigate whatever it is that causes the stickiness.

Here's hoping but not holding my breath.

Hi Richard,

You would have to put in a load of grease for the grease nipple mod to have any effect on the worm gear (lubricating the top bearing is best you can hope for) - But you could drill a small hole in the casting on the outer circumference of the worm/gear housing (I.E the lowest part of the casting if hanging upside down in the footwell looking up), go steady as the gear is plastic and you don't want to damage it when the drill breaks thru!, when thru give it a good squirt of a PTFE based lubricant.....Nothing to lose!, from what I've read it's not a wear issue but tight tolerances during manufacture and a lube that breaks down over time that causes sticky steering issues, so a good dose of a synthetic oil/grease can only help on both fronts.

Good luck!

Stu.

 

[Llewelyn]

No disrespect to the grease nipple mod but it's always had a certain whiff of bodgery about it to me.

It's quite a straightforward job removing the whole assembly, I'd be inclined to just get it rebuilt for ultimate piece of mind....