Military Vehicles, February 1997,: Re: M38-A1 Steering Bellcrank Rebuild

Re: M38-A1 Steering Bellcrank Rebuild

dunlops@racotek.com
Wed, 19 Feb 97 10:29:46

>While working on the front end I had noticed that the bellcrank pin goes
>into a casting riveted onto the frame under the radiator. The pin is new,
>so it's not worn. However, I did notice that the casting is worn somewhat.
>This leads me to my question, can the bellcrank pin casting be re-bushed.

I had a similar problem on my CJ-2a. My local jeep expert cut a 1/8" slit
vertically in the casting, straight through the area where the locking wedge
goes, and replaced the locking wedge with a bolt ground into a wedge shape. By
tightening this the bellcrank shaft was locked firmly into place, eliminating
the play. It's not an especially elegant solution but the alternative would
require cutting off the supporting bracket, having a machine shop install a
bushing and then weld the asssembly back into place *accurately*, a time
consuming and expensive amount of work.

-sjd