cub steering

[cattle1955]

have cub tractor purchased couple years back difficult to steer gentleman I bought it from
mentioned may need adjustment from time to time he has passed and I don't remember what he told me
when inroad gears not bad but cultivating very hard like it gets stuck checked steering grease it is very thick looks more like grease then 90 wt
it sat for all of last year got it running like atop but steering is abugar

[Don McCombs]

Have you lubricated all the steering grease zirks?

[Glen]

Hi,
There are several places that could be making the steering too tight.

You could try jacking up the front of the Cub, in the center area of the front axle, just enough to take the weight off the wheels, then you can turn the steering wheel from side to side, and see if the steering binds somewhere in it's travel.
The wheels should turn freely.
Something could be adjusted too tight, the tie rod ends have adjustments.
The balls at the outer ends of the axle, made on the arms, wear more in the straight ahead position.
So there is usually some looseness there in the straight ahead position.
If you tighten them so they are snug in the straight ahead position, they will usually be too tight turning the wheels to the sides, so the steering will bind.

The tie rods have tightness adjustments in the center, at the arm from the steering gear.
There are shims there, and it has to have the right thickness of shims to be snug. If someone took out too many shims, it could be too tight, and make the steering too tight.

There is an adjustment nut on the arm on the bottom of the steering gear, if someone changed it's adjustment, it might be too tight. It can make the steering too tight if overtightened.
Look at it carefully with a light and see if someone removed the cotter key lately, or changed it.

They have said on here that if the steering gear has grease in it, because of a leaking oil seal, or something, that grease doesn't lube the gears much, or at all, after some use. The grease works off of the gears, and can't get onto them again, unless someone puts more grease on the gears.
The oil that the steering gear originally had can flow.

Below is a pic from TM Tractor showing the ball on the end of a steering arm.
You didn't say what year Cub you have, the arms were changed in the earlier 1950's and they didn't use the setscrew.

[Gary Dotson]

All the items Glen mentioned but also, the quickest and easiest thing to check is the upper steering shaft support. I've seen them almost un-steerable till that support was lubed. It was like magic!

[Bill V in Md]

To illustrate what Glen mentioned in his post about grease working off the gears, below is a photo of my steering mechanism after removing from the tractor. You can see clearly see how the grease is not spread evenly around the gears.