Bellcrank woes

Those are bronze guide bushings used in the Mold and Die industry, you can get them from McMaster Carr, PCS, DME and countless other companies that make and sell Mold or Die components. I have used 1000's of them over the years, I would not recommend them for this application, they are not designed to take side loads, only locate stuff in a straight line and allow them to move up and down with precision.

 

I've used the bronze bushing a couple times that Ken posted. They always loosened up after a few thousand miles, and on replacing them, they were always wallowed out side-to-side. I eventually had a machinist bore the bellcrank out to accept taper roller bearings from a trailer axle. I then broke the pinchbolt, fortunately going about 5 mph- catastrophic failure! The ability to keep the bearings snugged worked quite well though. It was this time that I fabbed in a Saginaw power box (with a looped hose-no power) and this was in 1978. I was running 31" or 32" tires on 10" rims and V8 power, so this was hard on the steering system.
-Donny

 

Saw another one of these beefy bell cranks on a frame this afternoon.
Waded into the pile to take a closer look.
It appears as the one I've pictured...
But...it clearly has " BC-3" stamped into one arm.
so....who made it ?
I'll snap a picture next week sometime.

I looked at the one I have again...no marks anywhere.

 

Howard.... Not stock.
They are some make of aftermarket replacement bushings designed specific to this application.
Not really sure who distributed them.
You simply remove the original bellcrank bearings and seals then replace with this greasable bronze bushing.
No seals are required.
I had a couple of these that I removed from Jeeps and neither showed much sign of wear

It has an outer groove at center that allows grease to travel around the outside of the bushing.
Then has 2 holes 180* apart which allow that outer grease to travel to the inside of the bushing.
After it gets inside it has spiral internal grooves to distbibute grease all around the bellcrank shaft.

I fully agree that a tight fitted bushing will certainly loosen up at least a little bit over time.
Neat idea.... but probably not nearly as good as using tapered bearings.

 

I too have broken the center bolt on the bellcrank. It happened while offroad at very slow speed. If it happened while at speed on the pavement I probably wouldn't be here to write this. IMHO the Ross steering system just has too many pivot points to wear. As such, you'll never get a tight feeling steering with the Ross and bellcrank. I don't know why anyone would use it unless they were doing a restoration and wanted everything original. Saginaw is a much better and safer setup.