Sheppard Steering Gears are a PITA

[Smoking Joe]

So my new to me M1151A1 had a massive steering gear leak when it arrived. Not so subtley hidden by flex seal or something. After the 1 mile drive to my house from the drop off point, It was dripping off the truck at idle. Within a day the brakes were acting up and I realized they were on the same system. Fast forward to the fix...Hummer Parts Guy recommended Lares Coproation to rebuild because he couldn't provide quality seals. So I sent it to them inside a wooden crate and paid $700 for the rebuild. The gear weighed 50 lbs...70 lbs with the crate. A week later I get a meatball of a package in the mail. The listed weight was 70 lbs...that of my crate but no crate...just the reminents of a cardboard box.

I've called and emailed no less than 7 times (unanswered) asking for a receipt and some follow up questions I had because they sent it with a tag that said "Follow included instructions or you void your warranty." No instructions included. I found some generic ones on their website and Sheppard's. I purged the system and finally get the steering gear mounted. Weighs over 85 lbs with all the linkage attached when it goes in. Heavy and dangerous job.

Everything is hooked up...and now I have to set the wheel cut (tire/wheel angle) and then the manual poppets that the gear has that releases the pressure at full lock so the system isn't damaged.

the wheel cut was set completely wrong from the military....or i should say not at all. Tires rub on the a-arm with about 3/4" space still remaining before the axle stops hit. And the bung that houses the poppet on the down side of the gear has 1/16" space between the gear and frame rail. I called Sheppard and they recommended uninstalling and reinstalling the gear for each attempt to dial in the poppet, which has to be adjusted based on the axle stop spacing.

Ha! That will drain the steering fluid down each time and then need to bleed the system let alone getting into the correct angles to get it all put together and redone and torqued! For Each adjustment attempt.

What a PITA.

 

[Smoking Joe]

Ok. I dialed one of the relief valves all the way and it did nothing about preventing the steering stops from contacting. I can't find any reference to it in the TMs. Am I just chasing a ghost. Has anyone else done this? I've talked to an offroad shop and an avid offroader who works on his own rigs and both have said they have never adjusted them.

 

[tgejesse]

I’m going through the same process now on my 1165. I read this thread and just about had a heart attack about having to mess with the poppet. Generally the military stuff is ‘idiot proof’ because they have 18 year olds right out of high school working on these.

I’ve had my 1165 for over 2 years and have not yet enjoyed a drive. I’ve no steering since the first day I owned the truck. Started with replacing power steering pump and then moved to replacing hoses. I ultimately decided the steering gear had to go. The truck has 40k up-armor miles on it and my bet is/was that the gear was beyond its useful life.

This past weekend I was able to drop out the old gear and get the new one installed. Hoping to get some time soon to re-assemble the entire front end.

We can agree on one thing - f those god damn gears. Good luck.

 

[Mogman]

Has anyone looked into just going back with the original Saginaw steering gear, I doubt anyone actually needs the extra steering effort supplied by the Sheppard gear as there are tons of other trucks without them..

 

[Smoking Joe]

There is a post in here that brought that up. The concensus was all the various components and linkages would need to be changed to the same that are with a saginaw set up. More expensive then repairing the old gear.

I spoke with a shop owner I'm friends with that works on commercial fleet trucks and he said he's never adjusted them.

I spoke with another tech from Sheppard and they said to dial the poppets all the way in and I should feel the relief valve go off (like the wine you get from your everyday car when you push and hold the steering wheel to full lock). I did that with the poppet I could access from the top and it did not produce the noise or gap claimed in the instructions. I dialed back to where it was rebuilt to. The rebuild tech is back at Lares on Monday and I'll speak to him. Then talk to the tech at Sheppard one more time. But for all intents and purpose I have moved on the next target. I was taught when learning to drive not to hold the steering at full lock anyway.