I have a pretty worn out F1 box that needs to be fixed, I found all the infos here and on the Barn. What I didn't find is what to do to repair the sector shaft when it's badly worn other than to replace it. For a reminder I live in France so F1 stuff is inexistant although I found my box here by sheer luck (someone imported one but it was complete junk all around and he parted it) Ford car parts are very hard to come by and nearly inexistant after '36. Here's what I'm dealing with What would be the best course of action? I thought of hard chroming and rectifying the shaft. I thought also of machining the shaft just enough if it doesn't cut into the splines to get it smooth and have some custom made bushings, but I don't know if the shaft is surface hardened or something. What would you do?
I didn't know about those things, the problem is the shaft isn't worn evenly, it's more on one side than the other, then the other issue I see is that it seems it requires a flange to sit on. That's not a problem of worm and gear wear or adjustment, I will replace them as well. The shaft itself is worn out. I don't really feel comfortable doing that, maybe I shouldn't I welded plenty of stuff in my life. But I'm wondering about cracking I wouldn't want the thing to break off while driving.
Can you turn it down enough without getting into the splines? Install the pitman arm and measure behind it. If not enough, then it needs to be welded up, then turned
Preheat the whole piece to 500 F before welding (your kitchen oven will work for this). Buy some temp sticks (250, 400, 500, 600 degree F) to check the temperature of the piece before and during welding. I would use nothing less than E 7018 welding rod. Make a pass along the length of the affected area, then let the piece cool to no less than 500F before making another pass. Continue welding, one pass at a time, until you have covered the damage. Put it back into the oven to normalize the part to 500 F, then reduce the oven heat to 250 F. When the part reaches 250, shut the oven off and let it cool. Then you can turn it back to its original dimension.
Have it laserwelded, not enough heat to compromise the original material treatment. If you need it done here in EU, I can help .
I had a damaged small engine crank ground to clean up, then nickel plated and ground again to stock. Nickel is plenty hard to run in a bushing, no need to go to the trouble of chromium.
@alanp561 I learned stick welding almost 35 years ago and never welded again with that I don't have the equipment and don't have a oven at work. @RICH B I looked into that for another project and couldn't find anybody who's willing to do a one off, there's probably someone out there but I didn't find him. That's a problem here for many things : people don't want to bother for a schmuck with an odd one off. @shorrock for now I look into something I can do myself or local, but I keep that in mind. If you think UK there are tariffs both ways now... @Beanscoot I'm waiting for an answer from a local company but my hope is not high, see my answer to Rich b. @RMR&C & alchemy I took measurements and it looks like I can turn it without getting into the splines just barely. I started to grind the roller pin yesterday to see if there's a center on that side and it needs to be replaced anyway but it was getting really late. I looked into available bushings. Imperial dimensions bushings are super expensive but I could turn the shaft to a metric size (I need to confirm that) and turn the outside diameter of the bushing to that funky imperial diameter. I'd like to avoid to machine the inside and outside of bushings, I'm not super good at this. There are a couple of new sector shaft on the Bay but they are selling at over $300 that would be the easiest but that's stupid money. In conclusion for now it's chromium/nickel or machining with custom bushings. Last resort is shorrock solution.
Maybe try to find someone heading stateside soon and get them to bring one back in their luggage? Or bring it over to the UK to be fixed and make a trip of it, visit some UK events/shows in the summer, its not a long drive with the Tunnel and all.
I just checked and a Medium Flat Rate box via USPS is $88 from US to France. I have quite a few good used Ford sector shafts. 37-48 Ford car and 48-52 F1 interchange. If you need bushings, bearings, gaskets, etc I could send those also. Pay for shipping and the new parts if needed and I will throw in the sector shaft for free. Do you have to pay customs on a gift? I hate to see you go through the time and expense of trying to fix that shaft. Neal
Best of luck to you! I had a F1 sector shaft that the splines were shot on. I ended up getting another complete box and swapped it out. 150 was the price, here in AZ. While anything can be repaired, you have to consider costs involved. I'd suggest taking @NealinCA up on his very kind offer.
That is a fantastic offer Neal, thank you so much. I already have all the bushing, bearings, gasket and seals from Carpenter. Do you sell new roller and worm gear or good used ones? Or at least the worm gear if the roller is good on the sctor shaft you want to send me, mine are galled. Hot rodding outside the US other than with 1 800 credit card is not an easy task fortunately The Hamb is here with a lot of good people
These should do the trick. Good used original F1 worm and sector. The only issue is cosmetic, as there are some dings in the splines on the sector. But they are up past where the pitman arm seats, so it will not affect functionality. There are no pits in the bearing surfaces on the worm and no galling on the worm or sector roller.
I was set to suggest finding what ever France calls a job shop machine shop that can metal spray shafts and have them spray and turn to size but what NealinCa offered is going to cost less and probably be better in the long run than that.
Absolute winner and gentleman to help a foreigner out in such a way. The minor nicks will affect nothing. Jump on the generous offer.
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