Goat Steering Froze up..

2 of the goats we have for sale here in SLC will not steer. Any idea what is wrong? The wheel is locked up solid. Anybody had this problem before? What is the best way to fix the problem?

Thanks

The front steering gear box is prone to water contamination. Have they sat unprotected,a long time?

they have been parked for a few years. Unprotected? If it is water contamination, how do you fix it...

By unprotected, I meant left outside(DS front lowest) and allowed to accumulate water on the floors. The water leaks in from that.


Well, I bought a rebuilt unit for mine. The military actually rebuilt them.

I would pull them and open them up and see if they are savable.

If you look around, you may fins rebuild kits, to fix yours.

When you say it's "locked up solid" do you mean there is no play at all or it turns some but stops? Has the steering worked recently or is this the first time you've tried to turn it in a long time?

It's a lot of years since I worked on these but these things have always been a PITA for steering issues.

As DH wrote, the steering gearbox is easily contaminated because the filler port is in the driver side cab floor up under the pedals. I don't know what rocket scientist put the darn thing there but over any long period of time it's almost guaranteed that you will have contaminated oil in the gear box. Where the thing is at it's almost impossible to completely dry the area out and get rid of the normal dirt from around the plug to check the level and condition of the oil.

I'd pull the gearbox cover and drain and flush it just to see what comes out. Hopefully there's oil and not water or caramel cream in there and there's been no freezing damage to the gear boxes.

If the gear box seems OK and there is movement through it, you may want to have a helper turn the steering wheel back and forth while you check each bit of the steering linkage for binding or being rusted solid. Check all four corners and all of the shafts, splines and u-joints from the gearbox back through the tractor and carrier. This is a lot easier to do if the front of the tractor and the carrier are both in the air on jack stands.

I'm sure time has altered my memory somewhat but I have some memories of being upside down and being contorted like Gumby with my feet up in the air working on Goats.

Lance

Oh, I just thought of this, I recall a while back, reading about a guy with a goat, the two front Idler arms were froze from sitting.

Maybe your gear box is not the issue.

I'm going to resurrect this 5 year old thread as I'm having similar difficulties with my new Goat. As it's currently raining I'll forego the immediate inspection of the idler arms but will be taking a look at them tomorrow. As the symptoms of mine feel like there is something bound up I'm optimistic about heading in this direction. Barring that issue I guess I'll have to dive into the steering boxes. I'm not as limber as Gumby so might be a bit difficult.

Since the OP hasn't been on in about a year probably not going to find out if that was the issue with his.

As it turns out my issue was as simple as no gear oil in the steering box. Always best to check the simplest things first before getting too carried away.