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Bjorn, I drilled and tapped the caps, and then installed short #8 screws. Instead of grease on the exposed parts of the ball, I used Never Seize. I also used Never Sieze where the tie rod tapered pins fit into the sockets. Stuart, I've been very happy with progress on the shop. For the...

I've been unable to drive the M656 for the past couple of weeks. All the equipment and supplies for my shop construction have been taking up my driveway and turnaround space. Today I finally got it out on the road with the non-tight tie rod ends. Wow - it's so nice to drive. I still have to...

I was hoping to finish the tires and get a quick ride Wednesday. Unfortunately/fortunately my yard and driveway were full of heavy equipment for putting up my new shop. The last thing I wanted to do was distract anybody from their work. I've attached a few pictures of the significant progess...

Bjorn, Not to worry about the yard. The soft spots are all being fixed. We're using the soil that's dug out for the shop and driveway to fill holes in the yard. I've attached a couple of pix of the construction from my web cams. The yard is mostly level but the cameras are tilted. I guess...

I'm almost finished. Wednesday I replaced all the castle nuts for the tie rod ends. I also replaced the two tires that I had previously removed for clearance. I went for a quick drive in the yard to remove any stress (mine and the steering system's). There wasn't anything tricky involved, it...

I sent bid requests to six companies. Four haven't bothered to respond. One responded with a no-bid ($1000 minimum). HC Pacific out of Walnut CA has the nuts for $20 each. I haven't decided how many to order yet.

I finished cooking the last joint this afternoon. This is the evil number 2, which is connected to the pitman arm. I still can't remove the joint from the pitman arm. The joint was super stiff before cooking, but nice and loose now. I'll start putting the steering back together next...

I reinstalled the rear drag link between the power steering cylinder and the idler arm. That's the only part of the steering system installed. That is, the front and rear reach rods were not installed. So, there were only three moving joints. Number 1 connects the frame to the power steering...

The last two tie rods ends are cooking right now. They should be done around 1930 tonight. plan for Saturday: pack (now cool) tie rods in truck drive to Blaine reinstall tie rods and reach rods torque castle nuts reinstall two remaining tires torque lug nuts on all four steering wheels...

Tim, I thought about grease fittings, but decided to follow cranetruck's procedure. cranetruck is the canonical resource for the rehabilitation of this steering system as far as I'm concerned. He did this process two or three years ago, and his truck steering is still fine. Of course, the...

Stuart, Unfortunately, the M656 won't be ready on Saturday morning. I had thought about taking the Mog, but it's not highway-ready right now, either. What I really want is to get the M656 put back together. It was fun to drive, even with the somewhat stiff steering. I'm looking forward to...

I was able to remove three more tie rod ends on Wednesday. It was necessary to remove the rear drag link from the power steering cylinder to get to end number 4, which connects to the idler arm. The right hand ends (8, 11) for the tie rods came loose from the wheels easily. It was just a...

Here's a Sunday afternoon update - GREAT so far. The ends are still a little hot to handle easily, but I couldn't resist some initial tests. I didn't take an actual numerical reading, but the joint mobility is much better. I performed an initial break-loose with the socket wrench. The...

Here's more steering fun. I managed to release number 9 end between the rear reach rod and left hand second steering axle. I'm going to give credit to the fact that I reconnected end 5 to the idler arm, thus reducing the side load on end 9. I had to disconnect the axle nut on the idler arm...

m-35tom, It would be terrific to have the skills and equipment to fix up the joints like you describe. I had to use google to find out what a “fly cutter” was. So, I have a way to go before I'm ready to make such repairs. I'm also waiting on a “wetlands delineation” to get my shop built...

I've started my project to loosen up the steering on my M656. This will reduce the torque required to move the tie rod ends from 100+ foot pounds to about 10 foot pounds. Since there are eleven of these ends, they add up to a lot of torque resistance. The two main external symptoms are very...