This winter one of my projects was to replace ALL of the o-rings in a Burman type 2 steering box. I have a spare (which is currently in the car) so the car has not been disabled in case of disaster. I have the o-ring kit available from Barratts waiting on my shelf so off I went. I had tried resealing this box before, but not to this extent as I was unaware of the 2 hidden o-rings on the innermost shaft- that and I was afraid to deal with all those ball bearings. Disassembly went easily until I got to the quill valve.

The main shaft is actually 3 parts
I will point out that neither the shop manual nor the parts manual show this shaft disassembled. I searched around but only found a few references to rebuilding this unit- I only wanted to reseal anyway. I found one thread on the S-type Register forum in which the fellow showed a pic of his mainshaft in pieces. -here it is-

Another fellows mainshaft- note that there are roll pins at far left and far right
Going off this pic, I assumed that my shaft had 2 roll pins and spent quite some time searching for the one on the right. Mine does not have it and that area of my corresponding part is Just Different. I got the one pin out and finally gave up looking for the second and set the whole shaft spline end down in my vise. I used a drift to simply and gently knock the center part out. I was then able to easily change those 2 orings and start reassembly. here is My Mainshaft for comparison.

My Mainshaft- note the difference at lower right to the previous pic.

The next problem that I had was how to deal with the 37 ball bearings of 2 different sizes which must be installed alternately. I re-read the shop manual again for the umpteenth time but still did not understand. I had assumed(!) that the ***** were to be held by grease to the shaft and installed that way. This was wrong. I tried a couple of "jerry-rig" fixes but they did not work. I was reduced to just looking at it till it made sense. I finally realized - and suddenly it was very simple- this is what the shop manual means-

The ball bearings are held to the inside of the piston by grease
I filled the external tube with the ***** first, then plugged its ends with grease, then lined the rest of the groove with them in the grease. The grease held quite well, and it wasnt nearly the mess I had been expecting. Once that was done I carefully screwed the center shaft into the *****. It went well, and I felt a marvelous sense of victory over yet another inanimate piece of metal.
Once that was done the last major hurdle was installing the piston (I had to buy a piston ring compressor even though I was sure I had one). It was a challenge to get the *** on the piston lined up with its receiver in the rocker shaft. I remembered to wrap the splines on the rocker shaft to protect the new seal there. I had some trouble getting the piston square in its bore so that all would line up properly. Installing the rollers at the far end of the mainshaft was fiddly but do-able, and the ball bearings above that required care and patience as well. From that point it was an easy reassembly and the unit is waiting for warmer weather to be reinstalled in the car.

 

Spring has sprung here in the midwest US, and I have installed the resealed steering box and started the car. Without any input on my part, the wheels went fully to the right immediately. I considered this and climbed in and cranked the wheel to the left a few times, thinking that my load of grease in the ball bearings was clogging things up and just needed blown through. Each time I did this the steering system went back to hard right immediately, on its own. Of course I had to walk away. I had decided at first that I had twisted the splines on the input shaft when I installed it which may have caused the problem, so I disconnected the steering column and pulled the center section out but it made no difference. I now have the box back out of the car and back on my workbench disassembled. I looked it over and drove my drift pin back out to re-align the splines inside, but on reassembly I see that my middle top section does not move easily (or at all) as I think it should and I dont see how the center qill valve thing could be better aligned. So I removed That drift pin but did not pull apart, and the result is that the middle top section now moves easily the little bit that it can move. I await another set of fresh o-rings and that top seal and will keep us posted as events occur.

 

So glad I have the Adwest Variomatic steering box. It was so easy to strip down , reseal and reassemble in comparison to the what you have described on the Burman.
Keep up the good work.