I replaced the plastic coupler at the base of my steering gear assembly on my Craftsman riding mower and now I have steering slippage. I torn the system completely down three times trying to figure out what I did wrong. I spent pretty much the entire weekend working this issue. I takes over an hour for me to tear the system down, approximately 30 minutes to disassemble the gear itself and put it back together and another hour to get everything back together.

I did the following:
(1) One I got access, with the wheels straight, make the splines with "white out" for the steering gear at the base of the shaft where it matches up with the larger spline assembly.
(2) Unbolted the pitman arm.
(3) Lower the deck as low as it would go.
(4) Unbolted the 4 bolts holding the steering assembly.
(5) Removed steering assembly and replaced the plastic coupler.

*Perhaps this is a problem but one I couldn't avoid: I had to torn the front wheels by hand to be access to the bolts securing the steering gear and this created a problem on positioning the spline lineups correctly.

(6) Got it all back together and thus steering slippage.

I did this three times and now, I ordered a new complete Crafts Steering Repair Kit 167902 Part.

Any pointers for me?


Mod note - taken from this thread:
http://www.doityourself.com/forum/ou...ml#post2293654

 

Could be several things. Something is worn and you'll have to watch it in operation to see what parts are moving. It might need a sector gear, a different bushing, and/or a column gear. I recommend just replacing the whole sector as a unit and not having to worry with all the different parts that could be worn. I usually replace the shaft support on one only when everything else looks fine.