Series 3 Steering box

Well I took the steering box out of the Landy yesterday, err day before yesterday now, anyway took it apart and found several small ball bearings from the very knackered steering column bearing inside it,the missing section of said bearing was part way down the column. The oil that came out of the box was a delightful shade of very unwell diarrhoea brown/yellow/metal flake! I suspect I have an expensive fix with this box as there is pitting on the upper bearing face on the shaft and some pitting in the bit all the ball bearings run in. There are a few pics below, I've not removed the drop arm yet as I am going to get a puller to remove it rather than beat the crap out of it, then I will see how fubar the rest is. It was rough as **** when turning it by hand but I think that was the remains of the failed column bearing in the bottom of the steering column, also didn't seem to be much play in it. Should the ball bearing race just drop out because both the top and bottom ones just fell out when the covers were removed.

This Landy is in great danger of just being a pattern for the one I seem to be building with new parts

Are the Britpart steering columns any good? I don't want to spend £120 on a column and nut only to find it has the structural integrity of wet spaghetti. Just waiting for my puller to arrive so I can get the drop link off and see what the idler is like. If that's goosed too then it's looking like a new box

I've got to rebuild my box soon. I'm worried because I took it apart a while ago and it's probably all rusty now

If yours is salvageable, do you think the overhaul will be difficult to complete?

Got the puller today and removed the arm and took the rest of the box apart, I think I can salvage the rest but I will need to clean it all up.

If you left the oil on the parts then they shouldn't be rusty.

None of you pictures have worked - use the proper forum pictures thing.

You should be able to rebuild it. The bearing ends are available, did you mean the steering column itself is pitted?

The bearing caps do drop out. You may need to get a set of shims possibly to get it working right. Download the Land Rover workshop manuals and look in there. There is a section on setting up the steering box after a rebuild. It's worth following those instructions to the letter as you will end up with something the steers nicely instead of guessing and having something that wanders around all over the shop, sticks or worse!

Be careful when putting back together its easy for the steering nut to slip when you're getting it lined up in the groove on the back cover then when you nip it up the cover cracks! An expensive mistake to make!

I rebuilt mine for exactly the same reason when all the crappy top end rollers made their way down the column! Did you find a decent quality top bearing. The best I could find is still as loose as a whatsit's thingummy

That's odd I can see the pictures above on my laptop and phone. Can everyone else see them? I am going to add more later because my phone is doing odd things.

generally you need a new colounm and nut plus bearings and outer races ,britpart are as good as any as there isnt much choice ,ieven in china do you think many factories are producing such parts,looks to me top bearing race on shaft is worn ie buggered

That's what I thought, I will order up a new column and nut. I've not split the nut but I've poked about it and there is a distinct ridge in it on the plus side the rest of it looks OK.

The top column bearing is a Bearmach one and I only found out that they are a bit crap after I bought it.