A Technical Session was held on Jan 31, 2009 at Clyde's garage to demonstrate how to disassemble both the 7-tooth and the 2-tooth steering assemblies in preparation for cleaning, repairing, and re-building. A large group of Hawk A Club members were on hand to enjoy the session.

 John and Randy led the demonstration but had help from the members in attendance. Ron (standing on right) brought his early Model A 7-tooth steering assembly that was used in the demonstration.

The first step in the disassembly is to remove the spark advance and throttle control rods and do not this we need to remove the levers from the bottom of the rods by shearing the pins that hold the levers to the rods. This turned out easier said than done.

John hammers on the levers while Randy holds the end of the control rod on solid surface. This is supposed to be the preferred method but it did not shear the pins.

Dean shows us how to chisel off the peened head of the pin and then use a pin punch to drive the pin out of the control rod.

Here's a question for you, "How many Hawk A's does it take to change a light bulb?"

Finally, the pins came out and the levers came off but we appeared to have some broken parts: the two tubular pieces next to the lever were attached to the steering shaft housing.

The owner of the steering assembly, Ron, his daughter, and Don watch as John demonstrates how to remove the sector.

The 7-tooth sector is out and is full of old grease, which is why these go bad. After a half roll of paper towels, the sector was all cleaned up and showed that the damage was done. Ron needs a new sector and worm gear.

After the sector was removed, the steering shaft can be removed from the steering column housing. Here is the worm gear that mates up with the 7-tooth gear on the sector. "Hey, Clyde, we need another roll of paper towels!"

Using John's "slide hammer" (see Tool Inventory), we were able to remove the worm gear from the steering shaft. Because the previous owner used grease instead of 600W oil in the steering box, this worm gear is worn out.

This is a close up of the steering shaft and shows were someone has welded it together. The steering shafts come in two lengths and it is speculated that one of the previous owners either need to lengthen or shorten the shaft. So, he either spliced two shafts together or took a section out of one shaft. The steering shaft might have to be replaced depending on the bearing surfaces.