Help - Disassembling a steering column housing, quadrant, and gear case

[ahovey]

Hi all, I am in the middle of a steering column rebuild for my ‘11 Torpedo and would like to ask for some help.

I am disassembling an ‘13 column that wasn’t usable on the flange end but had a quadrant and gear case in great condition. I have drilled through the rivets passing through the quadrant in the column housing and removed them, but I am unable to get the gear case to budge. It seems to be under serious pressure from when the pieces were assembled. Given I still have the spark and throttle rods in place, I can not remove the quadrant entirely to relieve pressure on the column housing and gear casing.

I am hoping anyone who has done in this in the past may have some pointers on how to have a clean removal of the gear case from the housing. Thanks in advance!
Austin

[John kuehn]

Since you have the steering shaft column out you can use a of length of thick wall PVC pipe and tap on it slowly with a mallet. Using something like PVC pipe or maybe a 1” wooden dowel that won’t deface the brass case will work. First use WD40 liberally on the inside of the tube and outside of it so the WD40 can seep in and give you some lubrication for easier removal. Be patient and you should be able to get the gear case to slowly move.
I did this on a later model column and it worked but the principal is the same on most columns.

[rickd]

Since the column housing is in bad shape and you are after only the quadrant and gear housing any chance you can carefully cut the housing open below the gear housing to get a better look at what is binding. I have had the bent over ears on the gear housing that hold the throttle and timing rods catch in the housing during removal. They may be binding against the column housing. Take your time and avoid that bigger hammer.

[John kuehn]

Good idea! Get a good flashlight and see inside what may be binding or catching and then try the dowel with a rubber or wooden mallet. Good luck.

[ahovey]

Thanks John and Rick, I will take a look inside as best I can and see if anything’s is binding and then try a dowel.

Someone mentioned to me that they could be potentially soldered in place. Is anyone else familiar with that?

[Allan]

Usually the only soldering is between the gear case and the body of the assembly to reinforce the riveted joint between the two.

Allan from down under.

[Allan]

If you clean up the steel tube of the column the brass quadrant can be slid down the tube so you can get at the column under the quadrant. Then you have access to the area of the case body and working the steel column with light hammer blows can be much more targeted. This will help break up any rust/corrosion which may have frozen the parts together.
Drilling out the rivets can be problematical. Get a little off centre and some of the rivet may still be in place. When attempting this it is a good idea to drill about 3/4 of the depth required, increasing the drill size until the hole cuts through the side of the rivet. Then a pin punch has the blank bottom of the rivet on which you can pound to rivet out.

Allan from down under.