Eval the two new Brazilian Steering Box Manufacturers-MFG B

[OKType3Tim]

Following up on the evaluation of the two Brazilian manufacturers of steering boxes. My post regarding Mfg A is here:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=772496&highlight=

This post discusses the experiences with Mfg B.

To repeat from the earlier post:
Disclaimer/background: I don’t have a financial investment or ownership in either of the two products. My interest is in having a quality steering box for myself and fellow VW enthusiasts to use in keeping our vehicles safely on the road. It started because I had a problem with my own endeavors:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=659460&highlight=

Which lead to me having to figure out bearings, seals, gaskets, shims, replacement worm shafts, replacement roller shafts, top cover bushing replacement, and assembly techniques:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=660446&highlight=

To solve my own needs for a handful of working steering boxes, I put together 100 refurbishment kits. I had 100 sets of shims manufactured; 100 gaskets made. I had the kits ready in January 2017. Purchasing 100 units of anything can get you a little bit of a discount; but not a lot. I wasn’t, and I’m not, interested in creating a VW steering box parts business. I marked the kits up enough to reassure my soul that I wasn’t being completely stupid to take some retirement funds and purchase a pile of parts. The kits were consumed 3 years later.
[<grin> So much for reassuring my soul that I was making a wise investment.]

Along the way, it turned out that not everyone was as enthusiastic about rebuilding their own steering box. So, on a very limited basis I would rebuild a steering box for someone. And then later I rebuilt brand new TRW boxes to my working standard for those individuals that ask. This was all word of mouth; I didn’t advertise, I’m also not trying to create a VW steering box rebuilding company. [I’m retired and I have so much stuff going that I don’t know how I ever had time to go to work.]
With the kits gone, Marcel at VWNOS stepped in to fill the gap. He asked, and I provided, what I knew about bearings, seals, gaskets, and shims. He sourced more bearings and seals.

Then TRW really did stop producing steering boxes.
=====================

With the disappointing results from Mfg A, Marcel kept searching and found that there is a second Brazilian vendor. The second vendor/manufacturer turns out to be the actual purchaser of the full TRW VW Steering Box business. (Most Importantly, Including equipment, drawings, knowledge, etc.) They were just slower to the market than Mfg A.

Marcel, obtained a unit from Mfg B for me to dissect. I could reproduce the full writeup that I prepared, but the summary is that the initial unit pretty well matched the quality that TRW was producing. To their credit they were filling the unit completely with a better grease. And they had produced new main housing castings. In other words, it was as good as TRW, but still had the same drawbacks that had caused me to rebuild brand new TRW units. Marcel sent the writeup to them, and then it got interesting in a positive direction. Their response was, “Tell us more, how can we make the unit address your concerns.” WOW!

Thus, began some communications and changes to produce a better unit. I created a document that outlined my concerns and what I felt should be done to produce a better unit. And they changed their manufacturing and created a revised product. I then evaluated the revised product.
Improved, but not quite there. Additional information was provided to them, which also included some discussion regarding manufacturing tolerances and assembly adjustments. They again changed/improved their process and provided a revised product.

And now we have a unit that I feel comfortable recommending.
So here is a picture of labeled steering boxes.

They were also willing to sell the individual components, so as shown by the unit in the far right of the picture; it is now possible to completely rebuild an original VW unit retaining only the original housing. I.E. all of the other parts are brand new. So if you have an original VW housing with a good lower bushing; then you can accomplish this. However, if you are considering the economics, then I would just purchase the complete unit.
 
So here is a look at the unit.

Opening up the top cover, you see a full set of grease:

Initial disassembly

Notice the attention to detail. They are putting thread sealant on the two bolts that go through the top cover into the interior of the housing. There is also thread sealant on the big adjuster nut. The top cover gasket was attached with gasket sealant. These are assembly items that work to keep the grease inside where it belongs.
 
After cleaning up:

The bearings are of the style that uses a plastic cage. I can understand. That is just the way the bearing world has gone. Nothing to be done about it. From our discussions with the manufacturer, I am assured that the bearings are a quality item. The seals are still single lip, but the sealing surface is improved by being slightly softer (less hard) than the original TRW ones. The hardness level is similar to the double lip seals that I use in my rebuilds.

Looking at the top cover, I am really pleased to see that they have pressed in a brass bushing.

All of the machining is clean and precise. Note, don’t be fooled by the interior logo, this logo goes back to the TRW castings. The important improvement is the use of a brass bushing.

Looking at the lower housing, Again a pressed in brass bushing.

The machined surface of the top of the housing appears to be flat

And a couple passes on the surface plate proved that it really was flat. No high or low spots.

The non-flatness of the housing to has been a problem all the way back to the first VW units: The top of the original housing was never machined perfectly flat. Thus, there had always been a leak point at the top side of the housing.

The worm shaft has undergone final machining so the bearings fit in the races as they should

The fit and finish of the roller shaft is proper, including a better finish on the pocket where the top (small) adjusting screw rides

AND, the surface of the adjuster screw has been properly machined.

One of my pet peeves. This surface has continual pressure and wear on it. Every time you turn the steering wheel, the surface of the adjuster screw rides against the surface of the pocket with pressure. This pressure is what adjusts the no-play zone. So a rough fit and finish here leads to early wear and a narrowing of the no-play zone. I.E. making the steering play at the steering wheel grow sooner. They accepted my recommendation and improved this manufacturing step.

To summarize, the unit has very good “fit and finish”.
The adjustment of the unit is in line with the original VW documents.
And with the full grease load the units should have good life.

An additional comment: As noted at the top of this post, The shafts and top cover from this manufacturer are available. Using those items, along with original FAG bearings, new gasket, double lip seals, and corn head grease; I assembled the unit in the far right of the picture. I was very pleased with the outcome.

As always with my posts, reasonable comments and observations are welcome.
_________________
'69 Squareback restoration
'69 Fastback restoration
'66 Type34

[RedSquare]

This is excellent news, and thank you very much for sharing. More importantly, thank you for putting in the time to do the assessment and provide the feedback to the manufacturer. That is something that very few (if any) of us could have done and results in better parts being available to keep these wonderful old machines in proper working order.

Again - thank you.

[sjbartnik]

Very cool, Tim!

So do we get to know who Mfg B is so people can know what to look for?
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[heimlich]

[Erik G]

[heimlich]

[Erik G]

[sjbartnik]

Nice work guys!

For $159 that's a no-brainer.
_________________
1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[heimlich]

[Jason37]

This is absolutely fantastic - ordered.

[mdege]

[Erik G]

[heimlich]