Step By Step Pictorial Guide To Rebuilding, Installing, And Aligning The Ross T L Steering Gear

Most of you probably already know who Moses Ludel is, as he has been involved with jeeps at a professional level for several decades. He has written several excellent books on jeep rebuilding and maintenance, including the Jeep CJ Rebuilders Manuals and the Jeep Owner's Bible. He is the administrator of the 4WD Mechanix website as well.

The original Ross TL steering gear in my 1967 V6 CJ5 badly needed rebuilding, and I really wanted to accomplish this with NOS parts to the greatest extent possible. Late last year, in researching possibilities for having the rebuild work done professionally, I came across a video on Moses' website about rebuilding the Ross boxes in which he rebuilt one for a client. I contacted him to ask if he was still doing that kind of work on the side. He responded that he is not, but in short order, he got me interested in doing the rebuild myself. Moses offered to assist me through the process by helping me create a pictorial thread on his website, through which he could advise me as I worked through it one step at a time.

The resulting process of finding the parts and fully rebuilding and installing two Ross TL boxes (mine and my brother in law's) is thoroughly documented in the following two threads linked to below. I found the DIY approach to be very rewarding, including the fact that I "had" to acquire several tools I didn't own or know how to use before.

Moses' help and advice were invaluable in successfully completing this project. He is a true guru of all things jeep, and I am grateful that he very generously spent so much time guiding me through this process.

The first thread is on the rebuilding process itself, and the second covers the installation and alignment of the gear. I hope these threads will be equally helpful to others who decide to try rebuilding their Ross gearboxes themselves.


Rebuilding the Jeep Ross TL Cam and Lever Steering Gear


Ross TL Steering Gear Installation and Wheel Alignment

 

Incredible Post! Thank you for sharing. I see you installed the Walck's "Tightsteer". How is it performing ? So far my Ross box is still working well, just a small amount of play.

 

Howard can this be added to the steering segment in the technical index? This is impressive.

 

Focker I sure hope maurywhert does. That's valuable info. Thanks for prodding him.

 

Just 1 more example of why this site is second to none.

 

Thanks very much for the kudos!

Regarding Focker's request that I recreate the Ross TL rebuilding thread from the 4WD Mechanix website for the EarlyCJ5 Technical Index, I discussed this with Moses Ludel. (Moses very much likes what we're doing at the EarlyCJ5.com forum and sends his best regards!)

Moses shared that our topic at the magazine's forum and the "how to" information on rebuilding a Ross steering gear overlap with copyrighted content at his 4WD Mechanix Magazine. As a result, the material cannot be published or used elsewhere.

Without Moses' replies and content included, the material contained in these posts would communicate only a portion of the information needed to correctly rebuild a Ross box. That's a compromise I simply wouldn't be comfortable with. I hope everyone here understands.

Moses is firmly committed to a high level of content quality at his website. As its administrator, he is directly involved with all aspects of the forums on a daily basis. He indicated that if the EarlyCJ5 site's administrators / moderators are comfortable with it, links to specific topic content, like our exchange on the Ross TL rebuild, could be posted in the Technical Index.

Maury

 

Beach66Bum, I did buy a TightSteer unit, but have not yet installed it, as I want to get a good feel for how the rebuilt gearbox drives without it first in order to have a good basis for comparison. After I've installed it and have been able to test it out, I'll add that info to the thread on the 4WD Mechanix site, and will put a post about it here as well.

 

Thank you, looking forward to hearing about the results.

 

I know the inventor of the Titesteer, Roger Siminoff. He helped my out rebuilding my Ross steering gear. I rode in his flat fender and the steering feel was very good (with the Titesteer) with no slop. This convinced me to retain my Ross steering instead of swapping to a GM steering box.

 

That's really good to hear. I will buy one from Walck's. Right now the steering is not to bad. I like to keep the Ross steering too.

 

As for Tightsteer -- I bought one months ago. First thing I noticed was that the threaded part that enters the box is too short. I put it in max, meaning that I left of the retaining nut, but even then I didn't feel that 'constant' spring-loaded pressure I expected. I think it is advertised at something like 90 lbs pressure against the sector shaft -- but I think it needs to be several hundred lbs to be effective -- and about an inch longer. In short time, I put my original threaded adjustment screw back into the Ross box and just 'honked' it down a bit harder than it was. It's okay for the time being, but I need to do a re-build in coming months. Afterwards, I may try out the Tightsteer again. Until such time, it sits on my workbench -- ronnie

 

Thanks for the info.
Hopefully with the small amount of driving I do, when the time comes the Tightsteer will do it's job.