Truck Shop
Well-known member
One area to watch out for on Hendrickson fabricated steer axles is the stop bolts for setting turning radius. The shoulder on the axle where the stop bolt
makes contact was not cut for a straight or square contact point for the head of the stop bolt. When turning lock to lock the stop bolt makes a glancing
contact with the axle. Thus bending the stop bolt down. And that lets the steering box power all the way to the end putting pressure on the spool and
rack gears inside the steering box. The reason for stop bolts is so the steering gear powers out the last 16th of the full lock position in a hard turn, such
as backing up.
The only remedy is to build up the area by welding and grinding it square. It's not an area that welding will weaken the axle. I have had to do this on
five of the trucks where I work. It's not a tough job to do. Hendrickson has stepped out from under any warranty on this problem. If you have an axle
that has this problem YOU BETTER FIX IT because it will ruin an $800.00 steering box. And it can be dangerous. None of our drivers ever complained,
I found the bent stop bolts when trucks came in for service, which started a campaign in the shop to check every truck.
Truck Shop
makes contact was not cut for a straight or square contact point for the head of the stop bolt. When turning lock to lock the stop bolt makes a glancing
contact with the axle. Thus bending the stop bolt down. And that lets the steering box power all the way to the end putting pressure on the spool and
rack gears inside the steering box. The reason for stop bolts is so the steering gear powers out the last 16th of the full lock position in a hard turn, such
as backing up.
The only remedy is to build up the area by welding and grinding it square. It's not an area that welding will weaken the axle. I have had to do this on
five of the trucks where I work. It's not a tough job to do. Hendrickson has stepped out from under any warranty on this problem. If you have an axle
that has this problem YOU BETTER FIX IT because it will ruin an $800.00 steering box. And it can be dangerous. None of our drivers ever complained,
I found the bent stop bolts when trucks came in for service, which started a campaign in the shop to check every truck.
Truck Shop