Ross steering box rebuild hurdles

I'm stuck in the midst of my '71 Ross box rebuild. The FSM and Vernco are silent on this question...what's the dealio with that plastic ball-bearing retainer on each end of the steering column worm gear? See the attached pic:



(sorry about the crappy pic...not sure how to focus close shots )The top right has 9 ball bearings in a plastic retainer, which fits nicely and rotates nicely in that specially-shaped bearing cup below it in the bottom-right. That was the cup that came with the box. However, the replacement parts from 4WD...on the left side, top and bottom... are diffo. No plastic bearing "retainer", just 11 ball bearings which fit loosely inside a deeper/steeper race than what's on the right (bottom left pic is just of the cup, which is deeper than the one to its right). So now I'm confused as to which to use.

Vernco and the FSM (pg. 314) speak nothing about that plastic retainer that holds 9 ball bearings, but yet that's what I found inside both my V6 boxes! What to use?? Should I go with vernco and just carfully set 11 ball bearings into the new race, or only the 9 that fit into the plastic retainer thingey setup? The FSM doesn't say what to do here. I can't possibly be the first person to stumble upon this, lol.

PLUS, pg. 314 of the FSM has a blowup diagram of the steering column as it enters the Ross box. Where in the world to get 2 "Ball Retaining Ring"s (#9)? They didn't come with the ball-bearing replacement kits from 4WD. It seems that I might try my luck at any hardware store, but I figured I'd ask the gurus first.

 

Just use heavy grease to hold the ball bearings in the race. I haven't rebuilt my Ross yet so take plenty of pics. :hurrican:

 

I use the "portrait" setting with the highest pixal count.

 

FWIW - I found the same bearings (9 ball, plastic thingy) in my Ross upon disassembly.... So do tell how it turns out! R)

 

Hippo,
When I rebuilt mine in my 66, the plastic retainers weren't too messed up, so I was able to re-use them. The balls just popped back into the plastic piece. If yours is completely toast, you might want to ask Walcks or Krage since they seem to have more of the vintage, hard to get parts than most others. Probably not much help, but I hope it clears up the situation a little.
Rob

 

found the same setup in 3 ross rebuilds so far. the aftermarket bearing everyone is marketing for these boxes has a hokey non-curved race surface and does not include the ball retainers. the retainers can be reused unless there is a problem with them, just push out the old and push in the new. as for the races, I do not like the new ones and was lucky enough to have clean older races to reuse. there has been a guy selling NOS ross bearing sets on ebay in the past few weeks, sold several sets for less than $20 ea. included the plastic retainer and curved races. almost picked up a set for shelf decoration in the $ sink shed..
do some searchin

 

Thanks for all the feedback, especially with the camera tips.

One of the plastic retainers was toast in one of the V6 boxes, but I have 2 more from other boxes. I'm just wondering what would cause it to become toasted, and whether or not I should even consider using them because they're somehow prone to pinching or something. (?)

Randy, glad you noticed the differences in the inner shape of the cup/race that comes with the rebuild kits. In your opinion, what'd be the diffo between using the new race + the 11 loose bearings *versus* reusing the plastic retainers, old cup, + only 9 new bearings? (Assuming the old stuff is in good shape)? Depth or clearance issues? Other?

P.S. found some generic snap-ring clips at the local FLAPS that's work.

 

Either set of bearings will work - plastic or loose balls. They were both referred to in the parts manual.

I've found that if you are installing the 'ball bearing' style you don't need to have the ball bearings go all the way around the shaft. As a matter of fact you could get some binding if you were to somehow assemble it with as many bearings as will fit on the top and / or bottom.

You probably won't have enough bearings to go all the way around top and bottom anyway. Take the number of bearings, divide by two and install that number on top and again on bottom.

There should be a retaining ring for the bottom bearing / race. It will likely fall off during assembly, but that doesn't matter as long as it doesn't fall off until after you have the race / bearings in the bottom and seated. It'll just sit harmlessly on the bottom of the box in a puddle of oil.

Using grease can help keep the balls in place during assembly, but if you have some small magnets strategically placed that can help too.

I like the expression ---- "old parts is better parts". That doesn't always work, but if I can use the old I will because fit and function in new is questionable in so many cases, especially with anything from Ada-Omix.