Re: '56 Patrician Bendix Steering Ram

Posted by BH On 2012/10/10 10:39:59

Quite a mess there.

Years ago, that hydraulic seal was hard to come by, and my only source was a fella in CA, who only provided the two seals. That was no problem for me, as I was able to reuse all of the metal parts, back then. As such, I can imagine how someone - especially 'down under' - might hope to expand a worn seal to get a little more life.

However, that tape on the shaft looks like an especially bad idea; gotta wonder if any of that schitt wound up inside the cylinder. Perhaps with seals out, you can rig up something to push some ATF through the cylinder and maybe flush it out - just to be safe.

Don't understand why they'd cut the ears off the snap ring, either - unless they had a problem going back together (which should have been their first warning). Hopefully, MM's seal kit includes a new snap ring, as OE did.

To dress a little roughness on the piston, I've used strips of very fine grit emery/crocus cloth, soaked liberally with oil - much the way you'd polish a crank journal, manually. I did this without removing the piston from the cylinder. I wrapped the strip around the rod and pulled, alternately, on the ends of the strip, back-n-forth, working my way around the circumference and the length of the rod.

In your case, I would first try a little fine cut rubbing compound on a strip of clean cloth wetted with water.

Either way, when finished, flush the piston thoroughly to remove all traces of grit BEFORE installing seals.