Re: SER1 Lake Payne Engineering Workshop

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    G'Day Diana,
    I appreciate your problem with steering box nuts. Part of the 
problem with these is that  the worm wears as well so that an undersize 
nut would end up tight at the ends and loose in the middle position 
(where most of the wear naturally occurs). The nuts are difficult to 
make in any case as they "feature" a five start thread. This is a very 
time consuming process on a lathe and it would most likely take all day 
to make ONE nut. Work it out at about $100/hour for machine shop time.
    We had a go at repro nuts a couple of years back using a CNC lathe 
and the result was no good due to the way that these lathes work when 
cutting threads, especially very course ones such as these are.
    There is a solution to your problem though, you can obtain these 
parts from Steering Services in London. Refer to the parts suppliers 
section in the LRSOC web site for details. These steering boxes were 
made by Burman and similar Burman steering boxes were used on many 
British cars of the pre WWII and just post WWII era. (Burman also made 
motorcycle gearboxes). The owner of the business (Steering Services) has 
a tap for the 80" Land Rover steering box nuts. Manufacture of the tap 
was very expensive and he has stated that if it were to break, then that 
would be it for 80" Land Rover steering box nuts as far as he is concerned.
    Undersize nuts are not a goer for two main reasons, wear on the worm 
and cost of a tap for each undersize produced.
    I did think about doing a tap myself at one stage (we have the 
technology), but the cost would have to be passed on buyers of nuts to 
some extent and the fact that there is only a market here for several 
per year convinced me that it was a silly idea.
    Many Aussie restorers seem reluctant to buy parts from the UK, 
agreed they are relatively expensive but they are available and 
centralising the manufacture of parts at least minimises costs (as in 
steering box nuts etc.). Don't be put off by the prospect of paying 
duties and taxes. In theory, there is no duty for these old parts but 
there is GST payable. In practice, keep your purchases to relatively 
small batches of parts (say a maximum of  £200) and specify to the 
supplier that the parts must be posted air mail, ie. not courier or any 
other form of delivery service, but the British version of Australia Post.
    Re odd number of threads on the nut, in this case five start, I am 
at the moment making tools for dismantling the propellor of a certain 
type of famous British WWII fighter, the castellated nut for retaining 
the blades in the constant speed unit (hub) has 17 castellations. Only 
the British would think of such a number. Features like this would have 
really got under the aversaries skin if they had had to work on them if 
things had turned out differntly.
    Cheers
    Allan
    Canberra, Australia


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