w108 Steering Coupler Alignment

[tjohnson]

ordered the bolts 2 days ago. will change over when they come in. live in a rural area and EVERYTHING gets ordered. do you reccomend locktite or simply the proper torque?
your alignment instructions were a BIG help....thanks again. have to change out the low pressure hose (rotten and all the wiggling finished it off). headed to town to get a piece of oil rated hose and fluid...put another post on this morning about bleeding the system. I left my shop manual at work (oil drilling rig) and don't go back out until late next week.

[Mike D]

Just torque them. You should re-torque them on a set schedule is the reason you don't lock-tite them.

There should be a bleed nipple on the gear-box. I've heard 50 different ways to bleed the system and they all seem to work.

You can start the car, open the nipple, release the air, close the nipple, turn the steering full left to right, re-center and open the nipple again.

You can open the nipple without the car running and do the gravity-bleed thing.

You can allow the air to work itself out by having the car on jackstands and turning the steering wheel lock-to-lock with the engine running.

You can bury three small yellow spotted turtles under the shadow of an oak tree beneath the full moon at midnight....

[GGR]

Bolts holding the stering box are three, not two. Putting them new is a good advice. I once broke one of these bolts while tightening it and it was a real mess. I had to take the steering box out again, drill the broken bolt in the centre and take it out with an easy out. Problem is that these bolts are very hard and driling them in the centre is a real challenge.

It is also important to torque them as per specification. Them getting loose, even if only slightly will end up in cracks in your chassis rail and a repair involving adding a reinforcement metal sheet. It happened to me on a 6.3, which has a heavy engine. But the 4.5 is also heavy, even if not as much as the 6.3. Turning the wheels when the car is not moving (such as in tight parallel parking manovering) is what kills the chassis rail. You should inspect yours on the wheel side. Cracks usually start around the welds holding the tubes that go through the chassis rail. Clean and ispect those welds well.

[tjohnson]

The bleeding went well. Ran a clear piece of tubing from the nipple back to the reservoir, ran it and watched it until good solid stream. The car now drives like a dream. Been working on her for about 3 months now and really enjoying this project. Thanks for all the help guys!