I noticed my Steering bolster gearbox was leaking while preparing some cooling system work the other day. Took the cover off to put some JD corn head grease in there and the ancient grease already was full of metal chunks. The worm shaft bearing cage had disintegrated and the whole thing was completely worn. I'm actually fairly excited to be able to do this level of work on the steering. I got the tractor from my uncle after he wasn't able to use it anymore, and it's proven to be a lot of fun to work on. One thing I think I'll do differently from what you did is that I'll probably put some loctite 680 mounting compound on that lower bushing to keep it where it's supposed to be (if it's loose when I take it apart)
Nice job sir I just want to thank you once again for sharing your knowledge with us I have been around this stuff my whole life and you have learned something that I didn’t know on almost every one of your videos
Thank you, Craig! I hope to bring you some more videos shortly. Right now we are just waiting for the bearings to arrive for the rear end, and we have to make another trip to my cousins shop for the last phase of cleaning. Then, it is off to sandblast and primer! Now, if we could just secure a warm spot to do the priming....
Nice work on the bolster. I concur with comment below; I haven’t seen one of those taken apart. Neat to see how it all comes together. And I second that shout out to Owen! That was really cool! 🚜👍🛠🧰
I figured this was one video that I felt earned it's place in cyber space! There aren't any others for the bolster out there. Owen has been a great friend and has been MORE than generous in everything he has contributed to the shop. I can't thank him enough!
Great video. A great demonstration of the front bolster rebuild. Not much to them when it comes right down to it. They, meaning IH and JD, really wanted the tractors easily reparable for the farmers to make the repairs at the farm or in the field. Making great progress on the H.
Thanks, bud! Figured I would be the first to put this video out, and now people have a way to do it! It's not too hard, just takesa but of thinking to get it done with limited tools. All that's left is hydraulic pump seals, belt pulley seals, and rear end seals!
Great video. I watched this today so I would have an idea of how to do this to my M. Nothing went as smooth for me as it appears to have for you, but that's my luck...lol. Thank you for posting this was helpful!
You're very welcome! From what I'm told, doing these bolster rebuilds can be hit and miss. Some come apart easily, some fight you every step of the way! The hardest part is usually the large nursing, and the seal in the bottom of the upper portion of the bolster.
The front bolster seals on my H is so worn out that when you poor the recommend 80w90 oil in it, one hour later the fluid will be sitting on the ground. I fixed it by mixing a lot of bearing grease and little 80w90 gear oil then mixed it using my drill with paddles. 1 month later it hasn't leaked a drop and I use that tractor every day. Reason why I did that is because I will be using the tractor in the winter. And just paking it with bearing grease would make it rlly hard to steer. It rlly helps having oil in the bolster, it used to steer hard, now its like butter. Just my experiences 👍 give it a try, its sure a lot better than pulling the whole front end off to fix a leak. And you wouldn't need Armstrong arms to steer!
Great info. A lot of people use John Deere's corn head grease as well. IT seems to work well, and doesn't have the leak-down that regular oil has. This tractor is undergoing a COMPLETE rebuild of everything that needs it. The front bolster needed to be gone through as it had a bad death wobble.
i have done 6 of these rebuilds one on my H and my M and 4 more for the dealership all in the field as a result of broken steering shafts except my M which was worn out.. . if i remember right you must torque the castle nut which prevents the big bushing from spinning in the housing.. by loading the thrust bearing.. the only difference in the way i did this rebuild was i had the factory tools. now this is a fyi the new gear was made so you could remove the stop bolt and rotate the steering shaft 180 degrees and put the stop bolt back in and have new gear area. without taking the top apart. also the early H and Ms used a steering shaft that was square cut where the large bushing end narrows down to the small upper shaft. because of this that is where they failed and broke. the cure was to have a raadious in tthat location. i never seen one of them break that had the radious.. .
Great information! Thank you! I am going to treat the bearing preload the same as I would a wheel bearing nut. Snug but not over-tight. I cannot find any torque specs online or in my manuals for this area.
I have looked at these bolsters for years but never have seen one apart. Thanks for the video. You have mentioned others have had to chisel the lower busing out. The lower bushing area in the main casting on yours must have been worn a bit. I might of tried epoxy to get the lower bushing to keep it from turning in the cast housing before sliding the bolster into the main casting, but as long as the play is gone and the tractor has run this way for years anyway and I doubt your H will see the hard use like it did in the past so no big deal. If I recall there must be a grease zerk in the casting in the front right? I always thought that bolster design was a work of art. I was sad to see it go in the 460/560 years.
I had the same thought but figured I should assemble it and see what happens, since the shaft drops out easily. I was surprised to find that there was zero play in the bottom bushing/bolster/shaft. There is a grease zerk at the front, and when everything is together and painted I will start greasing and oiling everything appropriately. One more thing knocked off the rebuild list!!
6:14 the roof must leak over that case exhaust 😉 6:45 does it matter which way the thrust bearing goes? I've seen them put on both ways, but not sure if there's a right and wrong way.
Absolutely. Oven cleaner from the dollar store is generally what I use to degrease everything... BUT sometimes there is just SO much accumulated dirt that it doesn't matter what you do - a putty knife and screwdrivers are the only way to get it off!
I am rebuilding my M bolster and noticed something in your video. In final assembly you did not from what I see install the tube that covers the lower part of the shaft. Is it not needed?
I'm not sure what you mean by tube? Are you referring to the large bushing in the lower bolster section? There was no tube on the pedestal shaft itself.
All parts are available through Steiner Tractor parts. They do have a rebuild kit available that consists of most everything you need, then you'll have to find the last couple parts separately on their website. Shoot me an email at kenny.kizzle@yahoo.com if you need further help!
@@JacobAHull-nx6rx it is pretty straight forward. Remove the steering shaft, grab an engine host to lift the bolster, remove the 8 bolts holding the bolster to the frame rail, then slide it out. You may have better luck loosening the frame bolts at the rear, and the front engine mount bolts. That will allow you to wiggle the bolster loose from the rails. There is likely a lot of rust in between there.
It should be tight in the housing, my guess is the previous bushing spun due to lack of grease and wore the bore in the housing slightly. I'm just going to keep a good, liberal coat of grease on everything. It was either that or replace the front bolster. Didn't feel like doing that.
As you can see the bolster shaft is too short and the top of it always bends it should’ve went to the top of the housing with a bushing on the top housing plate to keep the shaft from bending from the worm gear bad engineering design they always bend where gear meets gear and you always have a half turn on the steering wheel Or more
I noticed my Steering bolster gearbox was leaking while preparing some cooling system work the other day. Took the cover off to put some JD corn head grease in there and the ancient grease already was full of metal chunks. The worm shaft bearing cage had disintegrated and the whole thing was completely worn. I'm actually fairly excited to be able to do this level of work on the steering. I got the tractor from my uncle after he wasn't able to use it anymore, and it's proven to be a lot of fun to work on. One thing I think I'll do differently from what you did is that I'll probably put some loctite 680 mounting compound on that lower bushing to keep it where it's supposed to be (if it's loose when I take it apart)
Good call on the loctite!!!
Nice job sir I just want to thank you once again for sharing your knowledge with us I have been around this stuff my whole life and you have learned something that I didn’t know on almost every one of your videos
Thank you, Craig! I hope to bring you some more videos shortly. Right now we are just waiting for the bearings to arrive for the rear end, and we have to make another trip to my cousins shop for the last phase of cleaning. Then, it is off to sandblast and primer! Now, if we could just secure a warm spot to do the priming....
Nice work on the bolster. I concur with comment below; I haven’t seen one of those taken apart. Neat to see how it all comes together. And I second that shout out to Owen! That was really cool! 🚜👍🛠🧰
I figured this was one video that I felt earned it's place in cyber space! There aren't any others for the bolster out there. Owen has been a great friend and has been MORE than generous in everything he has contributed to the shop. I can't thank him enough!
Thank you for sharing.. I have to get to my Farmall H this yr put new seals
You're very welcome! Hope the video helps!
Thanks for sharing, gonna do this and new brakes on my Farmall H this spring
Glad to be helping you! Lot more videos where this came from, and a lot more to come. Stay tuned!
Good job on the bolster Kenny.
Thanks, Charles!!
Great job Kenny
Thanks, John!!
Great video. A great demonstration of the front bolster rebuild. Not much to them when it comes right down to it. They, meaning IH and JD, really wanted the tractors easily reparable for the farmers to make the repairs at the farm or in the field. Making great progress on the H.
Thanks, bud! Figured I would be the first to put this video out, and now people have a way to do it! It's not too hard, just takesa but of thinking to get it done with limited tools. All that's left is hydraulic pump seals, belt pulley seals, and rear end seals!
Thanks Kenny, nice job1👍
Thanks, bud!
Great video. I watched this today so I would have an idea of how to do this to my M. Nothing went as smooth for me as it appears to have for you, but that's my luck...lol. Thank you for posting this was helpful!
You're very welcome! From what I'm told, doing these bolster rebuilds can be hit and miss. Some come apart easily, some fight you every step of the way! The hardest part is usually the large nursing, and the seal in the bottom of the upper portion of the bolster.
Enjoyed your video...
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for tuning in. Happy Thanksgiving!
Nice progress Kenny 👍
Thank you, Kyle!!
Thanks Kenny
You are very welcome! I hope the video is helpful!
Man this tractor is going to be like new.
I hope so!!
The front bolster seals on my H is so worn out that when you poor the recommend 80w90 oil in it, one hour later the fluid will be sitting on the ground. I fixed it by mixing a lot of bearing grease and little 80w90 gear oil then mixed it using my drill with paddles. 1 month later it hasn't leaked a drop and I use that tractor every day. Reason why I did that is because I will be using the tractor in the winter. And just paking it with bearing grease would make it rlly hard to steer. It rlly helps having oil in the bolster, it used to steer hard, now its like butter. Just my experiences 👍 give it a try, its sure a lot better than pulling the whole front end off to fix a leak. And you wouldn't need Armstrong arms to steer!
Great info. A lot of people use John Deere's corn head grease as well. IT seems to work well, and doesn't have the leak-down that regular oil has. This tractor is undergoing a COMPLETE rebuild of everything that needs it. The front bolster needed to be gone through as it had a bad death wobble.
i have done 6 of these rebuilds one on my H and my M and 4 more for the dealership all in the field as a result of broken steering shafts except my M which was worn out.. . if i remember right you must torque the castle nut which prevents the big bushing from spinning in the housing.. by loading the thrust bearing..
the only difference in the way i did this rebuild was i had the factory tools. now this is a fyi the new gear was made so you could remove the stop bolt and rotate the steering shaft 180 degrees and put the stop bolt back in and have new gear area. without taking the top apart.
also the early H and Ms used a steering shaft that was square cut where the large bushing end narrows down to the small upper shaft. because of this that is where they failed and broke. the cure was to have a raadious in tthat location. i never seen one of them break that had the radious.. .
Great information! Thank you! I am going to treat the bearing preload the same as I would a wheel bearing nut. Snug but not over-tight. I cannot find any torque specs online or in my manuals for this area.
I have looked at these bolsters for years but never have seen one apart. Thanks for the video. You have mentioned others have had to chisel the lower busing out. The lower bushing area in the main casting on yours must have been worn a bit. I might of tried epoxy to get the lower bushing to keep it from turning in the cast housing before sliding the bolster into the main casting, but as long as the play is gone and the tractor has run this way for years anyway and I doubt your H will see the hard use like it did in the past so no big deal. If I recall there must be a grease zerk in the casting in the front right?
I always thought that bolster design was a work of art. I was sad to see it go in the 460/560 years.
I had the same thought but figured I should assemble it and see what happens, since the shaft drops out easily. I was surprised to find that there was zero play in the bottom bushing/bolster/shaft. There is a grease zerk at the front, and when everything is together and painted I will start greasing and oiling everything appropriately. One more thing knocked off the rebuild list!!
6:14 the roof must leak over that case exhaust 😉
6:45 does it matter which way the thrust bearing goes? I've seen them put on both ways, but not sure if there's a right and wrong way.
The thrust bearing can go either way.
The hardest part of that job to me is cleaning all the old grease out and off the parts
Absolutely. Oven cleaner from the dollar store is generally what I use to degrease everything... BUT sometimes there is just SO much accumulated dirt that it doesn't matter what you do - a putty knife and screwdrivers are the only way to get it off!
I am rebuilding my M bolster and noticed something in your video. In final assembly you did not from what I see install the tube that covers the lower part of the shaft. Is it not needed?
I'm not sure what you mean by tube? Are you referring to the large bushing in the lower bolster section? There was no tube on the pedestal shaft itself.
If you look at the parts diagram on the Case IH website, there is no such tube shown or listed. www.messicks.com/cas/48950
Man this was great...I have the death wobble on our 1950 farmall H too. Do you have a part list somewhere you could share? Thks!
All parts are available through Steiner Tractor parts. They do have a rebuild kit available that consists of most everything you need, then you'll have to find the last couple parts separately on their website. Shoot me an email at kenny.kizzle@yahoo.com if you need further help!
@@KennyKizzleRustyNutzRanch yeah I've got some parts from them in the part..thanks so much
@@JacobAHull-nx6rx if you need any help, let me know!!!
@@KennyKizzleRustyNutzRanch do you have any vids taking the bolster off?
@@JacobAHull-nx6rx it is pretty straight forward. Remove the steering shaft, grab an engine host to lift the bolster, remove the 8 bolts holding the bolster to the frame rail, then slide it out. You may have better luck loosening the frame bolts at the rear, and the front engine mount bolts. That will allow you to wiggle the bolster loose from the rails. There is likely a lot of rust in between there.
Hey what size rubber did you get for the rears on that?
13.6-38 rears, 6.00-16 fronts.
What is that big bushing called I can't find one?
I ordered a bolster rebuild kit from Steiner's. Comes with everything you need.
shouldn't that lower bushing been tighter in the housing.
It should be tight in the housing, my guess is the previous bushing spun due to lack of grease and wore the bore in the housing slightly. I'm just going to keep a good, liberal coat of grease on everything. It was either that or replace the front bolster. Didn't feel like doing that.
As you can see the bolster shaft is too short and the top of it always bends it should’ve went to the top of the housing with a bushing on the top housing plate to keep the shaft from bending from the worm gear bad engineering design they always bend where gear meets gear and you always have a half turn on the steering wheel Or more
She's good and tight now! Like driving a Cadillac!