'48 B w/ Rollomatic Hard steering

Dalex

Well-known Member
What kind of thrust bearing is in the pedestal ? Is it like one finds in a king pin set up, an enclosed bearing with rollers inside ? The zerk at the bottom of the pedestal takes grease easily , but does that mean grease is flowing through the thrust bearing ? Can anybody post an exploded parts view? I tried filling the gear box on top with STP, not much change ....
 
IIRC ? the model B has a bushing in the lower pedestal and a thrust washer. The model A has a thrust type ball bearing.
 
Reason I asked is depending on what type of tire tread your fronts have and how much pressure is in them , they can be a bear to turn even on hard surface road. Mine has 3 ribs and even tho they look pressured up (no squatting) if I don't keep them pumped up good and hard, it will steer VERY hard. Pressure them up and it's like night and day difference.
 
One of the best ways to make these old non-power steering tractors steer easier s to keep the front tires inflated to 40 psi. you will see a major difference from the 25-30 psi most people leave them at.
 
Agreed! "A" used a ball bearing where the "B" used a bronze bushing.

An A sitting still on concrete will steer more easily than a B in the same place.
 
OK , the "B" model only has a bushing and a thrust washer , and greasing it isn't helping , I guess the trust washer is scored or otherwise damaged ...
 
Here is my youngest daughter Annie from this past summer on my 1952 B. It may not be pretty, but the mechanical restoration was done a few years back...just trying to get everything perfect in terms of oil leaks and such before painting. I've probably put 200 hrs on the tractor by now.

I did all the mechanical restoration on a 1952 B with a R-O-M and found it hard to steer. I also replaced the sector gear and the eccentric bushing (new from Rich Duane) which probably didn't help in regard to steering effort. Of course, I didn't want a wobbly front end going down the road at any speed.
I spoke with a guy at a show and we got to discussing steering effort on my B. I agree, it took and still takes way more time than it ought to. He had a buddy take his front pedestal to a machine shop where they machined the lower housing to accept a large diameter tapered roller bearing. He claimed it made the tractor steer like it had power steering.

I will say as well that changing your front tires so they 1- match and 2 have 35psi in them will help a lot.

Perhaps some day I will remove the front pedestal and have it machined for a large diameter bearing similar to that of the model A and G tractors.
I've also kicked around the idea of converting the tractor to a 'split' pedestal but I'm not sure it would make any difference and would of course change the look of the "B" front end with a 2 piece pedestal.

Hope this information provides a little info.
Tyler in IL
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Tyler, I know that a tapered roller bearing would be a big improvement , but way too expensive .I need to pull the pedestal apart and see what condition the thrust surfaces are in . I don't think it is a tire issue ,I have a matched set of Nankang 600X16 3 ribs on it , slightly over inflated at 45 psi. I'll put up a new post in a month or so when I find out the problem.....
 
Been many years back but my brother & I looked through a bearing manufacturer's book (Torrington at the time) and found thrusts bearing that were flat pancake radial roller bearings. All diffent diameters ID and OD. They were real thin like maybe only .25 or .3". They had thrust ratings like 30 thousand pounds with insane operating speed ratings and there were pages of different sizes & ratings.

We put one in the front end of a Cockshutt 30. Made it steer very nicely! There was an assortment of space washers in varying ticknesses available to make up the space difference.

It worked so nicely on the 30 he did the same to his 110 and 214 lawn tractors but there was not so much improvement there!
 
I will seriously consider that idea ! I was aware of them , but I didn't know if they made them in this weight capacity...
 

One of the dirty little secrets is that the Roll-O-Matic steers harder than a non-ROM. Reason being that they have a caster like action. Though the gears were mounted out ahead of the center of the spindle to alleviate this, IMHO you still get a side to side drag on the wheels when turning.
 
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If that helps I just redid my 48 B. That bushing was almost impossible to find but I did find one after 3 months of searching.
 

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