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sloppy steering

72BlueBronco

Sr. Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2001
Messages
689
my steering is loose and I'm 90% sure it's my steering box. How hard is it to rebuild a power steering box?
I see that a rebuild kit is like 70 bucks and a rebuilt power steering box is $700!

also I thinking of getting rid of the power and going back to manual...Thoughts?

Thanks
72blue
 

pipeline010

Sr. Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2017
Messages
618
Should be moved to tech forum.

I had some very loose steering as well since I had the truck and either was getting worse or annoying me more so I took a swing at tightening it. That was about 4-5 months ago and has been extremely tight and perfect since then, no rebuild was necessary.

EDIT: follow the other posts FIRST. Don't mess with the box unless you're absolutely sure the loose-ness is in the box by checking everything else first. My post here assumed you had already isolated the steering box as the culprit.

I've got the saginaw, but I assume many boxes are similar. On the top is a main nut with an allen wrench slot on it. Put your allen wrench into the slot, then loosen the main nut around it, making sure your central nut (the one the allen wrench is attached to) isn't spinning. You may have to re-turn the allen wrench a bit as you go to keep it neutral.

After you loosen the main nut, tighten the allen wrench no more than about 1/8th of a turn. Then you need to re-tighten the main nut, again verifying the central allen wrench doesn't move from its now 1/8th tightened position. you absolutely do not want to over-tighten or you'll jam up your gears and need a rebuild.

After you drive on that for about 5 days you can go back and re-tighten it another 1/8th if you need to. SOmething about your gears settling in to the new adjustment.

Plenty of youtubes on the subject and, for me, it made 100% difference and haven't had a single bit of loose-ness since.
 
Last edited:

BGBronco

Contributor
N A S H V I L L E
Joined
Jun 23, 2017
Messages
1,543
Loc.
Tennessee
Full rebuild is $175 + shipping from west texas offroad. Mine is headed there soon.
 

.94 OR

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 5, 2009
Messages
1,659
Wouldn't hurt to rule out the other 10% while you are at it.
 

tatersalad

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jan 17, 2009
Messages
1,067
Have someone sit in the truck and turn the wheel while you watch the steering geometry so that you can narrow down where the slop is coming from. It could be as simple as the attaching bolts to the box have loosened up, ball joints etc..
 

Slowleak

Bronco Guru
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
3,732
Loc.
Georgia
Check your track bar bushings too...... I set my phone under mine and let it record video while I moved the steering wheel. Narrowed the problem down pretty quick.
 

langester

Contributor
MASTER OF MADNESS
Joined
Mar 2, 2013
Messages
2,660
Pop the hood and check all the connections from the steering column down to the steering box as well. Might have a loose rag joint or ujoint depending on your setup.
 

langester

Contributor
MASTER OF MADNESS
Joined
Mar 2, 2013
Messages
2,660
As far as switching from Power steering back to manual. That seems like a bad idea in my mind, I see no advantages going backward. Just my opinion of course. Good luck with your project!
 

Orig93gt

Jr. Member
Joined
May 27, 2013
Messages
121
Rebuilding the box isn’t too bad. The helical bearings can be a pain. But overall it’s very straight forward. There are some vids on YouTube to give you an idea of how it goes.
 

lgdpt

Sr. Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2012
Messages
396
Dont go back to manual. You are taking away from the value of your Bronco and you will regret it. Fix the slop.
 
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