Steering wheel play on 100

[drhntrrmw]

I have quite a bit of steering wheel play on my 100 and it appears to be at the left front spindle.

The spindle cap moves when the steering wheel is turned but the spindle and wheel do not.

I have never had a spindle a part...is there a bushing or bearings that could be worn??

[zippy1]

Your trouble is where your drag link attaches to the knuckel assy. Where the roll pin goes through the two the hole becomes egg shaped.
I fixed this by welding the hole shut in the knuckel and re-drilling and also drill and tap two holes in the drag link and install two set screws along with a new roll pin. Fits like a glove, tight as it was new.
I'm into saving money wherever I can, and this was the most cost effective way without buying all new parts.
Good luck.

[westofb]

I have a 125 that suffers from the same sloppy steering, on mine you can see the top arm on the spindle attaches with a roll pin, the arm has wear in the hole that the roll pin passes through, the hole is not round as it should be, it is oval shaped. This particular tractor is slated for repair way down the line, so 8 have not attempted to fix it. I have been thinking about, one way is to buy a new or better upper arm, the other would be to fix what you got. I would think it could be repaired by removing from the tractor, getting a piece of copper pipe just smaller than the spindle shaft, so it will slide inside the arm, just like the spindle shaft did. The copper pipe (maybe 1" long) could be split down one side, then cut a piece of some type of metal into a wedge shape, that could be driven into the slit of the copper pipe to wedge it tight into the spindle arm, making sure the split is centered between the roll pin holes in the arm. Then weld the roll pin holes shut, weld will not stick to the copper, and acts as a backing to prevent the weld from entering the spindle shaft hole. Remove the wedge and pipe, then redrill the roll pin hole to the proper size. It should last for a long time. I have never done this myself, just thinking about how I would repair the steering arm on my 125, it should work. Maybe someone has a better idea in fixing it, but this is how I envision repairing mine.