thanks for the nice comments everyone....
thought id start on the steering box last night. easy enough to pull, then remembering what needed to be done to get it apart from one or two threads on here, i got it all apart and cleaned up to inspect. bearings are good, even the foam gasket is still in one piece, very compressed but still usable. i have some foam sheet thats looks similar to that so i will cut out another to reuse. the cam follower is a little worn, so i will reshape that. upper bushing is nice. will install one of the 'kit' thrust bearings on the pivot bolt when putting it back together. i think the biggest problem with this box is it was so far out of adjustment that it was binding on the left and right extremes of the turning circle, and was as loose in the straight ahead as ive ever felt on anything before.....
heres how it looked when first pulled and after cleaning it up a little. i will take it to work today and clean up the tube and paint. will lightly glass bead the rust off the steering shaft as well and put some rust preventative on it. then will get it back together. im trying to keep the tractor as much together as possible at the moment and just fix the bad stuff first.
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