anyone replace there steering gearbox?

[HANK1948]

my gearbox is leaking bad from the pitman arm shaft dont know if its better to replace whole box($240) or try to fix the bad seal? anybody done that?

[CareyWeber]

Originally posted by HANK1948:
my gearbox is leaking bad from the pitman arm shaft dont know if its better to replace whole box($240) or try to fix the bad seal? anybody done that? I replaced the seal on my 90 gasser I had and it was not hard to do.

You have to take the pitman arm off so swap it if it has very many miles on it.

Carey

[DA BIG ONE]

I have been through 4 boxes under 100k miles;
1)unit that came w/truck new @85k,
2)installed factory rebuilt,
3)damaged in accident,
4)just bought another box to replace the units insatlled after accident, not installed yet.

What I have been seeing is that the box is a variable rate type, and goes out of adjustment causing the truck to wander dangeriously.

2 of the boxes had seal failure too.

I am thinking that w/12k lb winch & WARN bumper I will see more factory rebuilt units in the future!

It would be nice to be able to install a real extra heavy duty unit and be done with it.

[tom.mcinerney]

Hank-
Moderator RonnieJoe has a post you may find thru a search where he says a complete rebuild isn't too challenging.
I recently replaced mine with one used from a wrecking yard, and was happy with the 'upgrade'.

DBO:
You suggest the steering boxes may be light for our service. The replacement for my K3500[9200GVW/SRW] came from a Dodge , 1/4 ton 2-wheel drive!! Agreed.

[DA BIG ONE]

Murphy must be my passenger because of all the steering box failure.

Any of you know of a good strong steering box from a medium/heavy truck that can be used to replace mine?

[rjwest]

Replaced mine on a 93 gasser. First NAPA rebuild was
worse than the one I removed.

Lot of play in steering arm .
Payed more money at NAPA ( thought it would be a better rebuild ) than found out Discount Auto uses same rebuilder.

[opto]

Tom

Does you dodge unit work well?
Is it more heavydutyish?
Was it a lot of work swap?

I run 35's and they really eating steering components....

[Hubert]

I see ads in the back of 4x4 magazines occasionally for Super box 1 and Super Box 2 (stronger Saginaw type steering gearboxes) and higher performance pumps to go along with the new gear box. I am wondering if the better pumps wouldn't help with the hydro boost system too.

I saw Summit racing online has the steering boxes for about ~ $350-400. Search the hardcore 4x4 performance vendors for better stuff. The big tires they run are really hard on things.

Can't tell you if they are infact better steering boxes. They Look like cleaned painted and/or coated rebuilt cast iron boxes to me. Must be the internals that are heavier duty.

[ace58]

I replaced the seal and pitman arm after hearing horror stories about the reman units, although I had not experienced wear in the gear.

[tom.mcinerney]

Opto , DBO--

The wrecking yard parts crossover software indicated that Dodge 1/4 ton was same item as my 9200GVWK3500SRW. However, the 2500/3500HD models, with much higher GVW , do get fitted with a different (bigger/heavier??!!) steering gear.
There are more than a few Saginaw steering gears that appear nearly identical to the unaided {uninformed} eye. I would look at (&/or acquire)
a gear from a 3500HD---or try to contact someone at Cardone or Saginaw for info.
Our gears seem a little light. Equally interesting is that some of very similar vehicles experience a lot of front end component wear, while others do not. These could be different problems.
Maybe worth a post to the 2500/3500HD Forum for more perspective??
I agree that good power steering pump performance
is essential to good brake+steering performance (but i doubt that effects the steer gear wear issue).