The worm because the same part of it is being contacted all of the time but on different sector teeth as you turn.
In GM manual boxes from the 50s-60s, the pitman shaft bushing is what wears first and most often. Since you might be working on a 41 ford, my answer might not help you.
If you mean your Olds, it is possible to adjust for wear. If you do adjust it, get the factory manual and follow it exactly. Do the adjustment wrong and your steering box will wear out in a couple of months. First go over the steering and suspension looking for wear and slop. Do not overlook the rag joint, the bolts holding the steering box to the frame, or the idler arm pivot. With all worn parts replaced and the box adjusted you may find you don't need to replace the steering box. When new, the worm was made to fit tighter in the middle. This is because it wears most in the middle and they want you to be able to adjust it without making the ends too tight. If the shaft bearings are worn adjusting won't help much. By the way, you have recirculating ball steering which means, the worm and wheel have ball bearings between them. They never touch each other. This cuts wear to a minimum. If you rebuild the box with new bearings you can usually reuse the worm and wheel. There are spe******ts that will rebuild the box for you.
My '41 is nice n tight! It is for my '61 olds 88. It has slop and looks like the adjuster is all the way in already. I have a chance for a new sector and was hoping that would fix my box.
If it's manual steering, first check the pitman shaft to see if it moves sideways when you wiggle the wheel back and forth (this takes two people to check). If so, you probably just need to replace that bushing.
check out stangerssite.com it is very good for the basics of manual gear boxes. it primarily is for early mustang steering boxes
I just rebuilt a Saginaw 525, which is very like yours, unless you have a power box. I bought a rebuild kit with upper and lower sector bushings and ball bearings for the worm shaft. After cleaning all the parts, The recirc ball shaft was worn out and pitted, the sector shaft was worn .001 and the bushings were shot. I had to find another box to rebuild. There is a very close fit from the adjusting screw to the slot in the sector shaft. This is important for holding the sector in adjustment. There is an outfit in Missouri that rebuilds boxes for industrial equipment (many use Saginaw boxes). If I can find the name ,I'll post it. BTW the sector shaft lower bushing is also fit close. .001 to .002" I think.
The teeth on the sector gear are at a slight angle, and as you tighten the adjusting screw, it moves the sector down, and the angle makes it have less clearance with the ball nut rack as it moves down. When the bushings wear, it allows the pitman shaft and sector gear to move away from the ball nut rack, and results in slop. You can only tighten the adjuster so far...and even when you do, the side to side movement of the shaft in the loose bushings results in slop. The bearings at the ends of the worm usually are in good condition, unless the gear was run without lube for a while. If that's the case, all the other parts are probably worn out too, and you'll need to find a replacement unit for the whole thing. So, what this means is that most of the time you can fix it by just replacing the bushings and seals, and adding lube (NGLI 0 grease), adjust it, and it'll be fine for years.
RedHeadSteeringGears.Com in Seattle, Wa. claims a 24 hour turn-around time on boxes. They may supply parts. Butch/56sedandelivery.
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