Steering box issue at the centre of the recall
US-based component manufacturer R.H. Sheppard has identified a potential defect in steering gears manufactured between June 1, 2021, and February 10, 2022 with more than 100,000 trucks from Volvo, Daimler and Kenworth among the companies caught up.
Sheppard advised the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US body which administers recalls, that a small percentage of steering gears were assembled without the required number of internal recirculating balls. A steering gear with fewer than the required number of recirculating balls may bind when loads are applied. Sheppard says in some cases, the balls may align on the same side of the worm shaft and concentrated loads may cause the gear’s internal parts to fracture, resulting in potential loss of vehicle steering.
A potential recall population of 105,271 vehicles will be examined but Sheppard believes only a small percentage of those vehicles contains the steering gear in question, and only a small percentage of that subset contains gears with the potential defect.
A seemingly similar, but unrelated, recall listing Penske Australia has advised that seven local Western Star Constellation models are affected with a steering box issue also.