Sloppy Steering on TO-20...

I drove the TO-20 across the pasture to the shed yesterday to store the blade, as I think winter is finally over.

I"ve only had the tractor since last fall. I hadn"t driven it over anything other than my driveway, and I noticed that the steering was pretty sloppy as I drove over some rougher terrain.

The steering box itself feels pretty good, and I think it"s adjusted correctly, per the Shop Manual, BUT...

I had new front tires put on a few months ago, and while the front end was in the air, I gave wheels/spindles/axle a good shaking.

I know I need to adjust/service the front wheel bearings.

I also need to replace the spindle bushings on at least one side.

While I"m at it, I"ll probably also replace the axle pivot pin and bushing.

Finally, the left rear tie rod end is very loose, and I couldn"t gain anything by tightening the nut that attaches it to the steering arm, so I"ll probably do the tie rod ends as well.

I know from messing with my riding lawnmower that a little bit of slop in each of a number of components between the front tires and the steering wheel can add up to a whole bunch of sloppiness, and the steering set-up on the TO-20 is basically the same as my lawnmower.

Short of the steering box itself (which I think is OK, and I really don"t want to tear into), is that about all I can do?

on my to-20, when i move to steering wheel a litte, either way, i see that the steering arms attached to the box will move a little, telling me that i need to rebuilt box, which causes my steering to wobble some,,,if any thing is loose and worn out, some where they will come into play for any of the above you talked about..

The steering was wobbly on my TO30 when I got it. Properly setting the adjusting screws on the steering box helped a lot, but it was still worse than I wanted.

I have done most of what you mentioned. On mine, new spindle bushings made the single biggest improvement, but that was probably because they were very worn.

I know that my steering box probably should be rebuilt someday, but doing the easy things made a major improvement and it's tight enough for all I do. I hope yours is the same.

Thanks, Jeremy. I think my spindle bushings are in pretty bad shape, too, especially on one side, so I"m hoping that replacing them will help.

Like you say, start with the "easy" stuff! (Relatively speaking...)