How to Rebuild a Power Steering Gearbox

[f2502011]

Looking to fix a leaky power steering gearbox. New or rebuilt ones are $$$$, but I notice they also sell a rebuild kit for around $65. How difficult is it and what all do I need to rebuild the power steering gear box? Also, are there any good references for this?

 

[Crawdad]

Mine is not leaking so I am going to slightly tighten the screw on top to see if that removes some play. If that doesn't work, I plan to mail it to West Texas Off Road (http://westtexasoffroad.homestead.com/index.html). Find a flat rate box and ship to them. They charge $140 for rebuild and $40 for shipping you box back. From what I have gathered they do a super foam job when shipping it back to you. So for around $200 you get a professional to rebuild your box even though $60 went to shipping costs. PSC also does PS box rebuilds and are practically the same price and are also located in Texas.

 

[Scoop]

Looking to fix a leaky power steering gearbox. New or rebuilt ones are $$$$, but I notice they also sell a rebuild kit for around $65. How difficult is it and what all do I need to rebuild the power steering gear box? Also, are there any good references for this?

Its tough to do if you have never done or seen one done before. BD had a "how to" article a few years ago and I followed that closely. When I was done and had it installed it only would turn right! Ended up using it as a core and getting one from Advance Auto. Turns out they gave me a 4-turn box instead of a 6-turn. So worked out well for me. But you may have better luck rebuilding it than I did.

Bottom line though, I agree with Crawdad - I would send it to West Texas Off Road!

 

[Crawdad]

Ended up using it as a core and getting one from Advance Auto. Turns out they gave me a 4-turn box instead of a 6-turn.

Didn't know they carried them?!!! Do you have a stock #? Didn't know I had a 3rd option. Thx Scoop!

 

[Hozr]

WCB sells the rebuild/seal kit for $20 and has the directions to do it yourself. Its time consuming but not too dificult.

kit

http://www.wcb4x4.com/mm5/merchant....Code=WCB&Product_Code=20738&Category_Code=STR

Manual

http://www.wcb4x4.com/tech/rcshopman1.pdf


Thanks again Don!!!

 

[ft bronc]

I recently rebuilt mine, and am glad I did for the experience, but for $200 bucks as mentioned above, I wouldn't do another. It's tedious and tricky.

 

[Scoop]

Ended up using it as a core and getting one from Advance Auto. Turns out they gave me a 4-turn box instead of a 6-turn.

Didn't know they carried them?!!! Do you have a stock #? Didn't know I had a 3rd option. Thx Scoop!

I am not sure they carry them anymore. This was 3-4 years ago.

 

[Myllo73]

I had mine rebuilt a few years ago and found out that a bearing race had been wore out and I wasn't told about it. Thought the way my steering worked was just that way, until having my some work done my friend showed me the slop. Just a note.

 

[bsquared]

I pulled mine off last night and am shipping it to West Texas Offroad tomorrow. Read up on the procedure and, like ft bronco said above, for the money I'd rather they do it.

Crawdad.....nice call on the flat rate box. I'll have to see if I can cram mine into a large one. Cheers, B2

 

[itsabronco]

do a 4x4x2 steering box conversion. Cheap, easy, and stronger.

 

[bad 68]

I put the rebuild kit from Toms in a little over a year ago, do to a leaky lower sector shaft seal. It never felt quite right and I didn't like the way the Bronco drove.

2 Weeks ago I shipped it off to West Texas Off Road. Turnaround time was only 2 days.

Rebuild plus return shipping to Washington State was $190.
Drives down the highway like I always wanted it to.

 

[thegreatjustino]

Ended up using it as a core and getting one from Advance Auto. Turns out they gave me a 4-turn box instead of a 6-turn.

Didn't know they carried them?!!! Do you have a stock #? Didn't know I had a 3rd option. Thx Scoop!

Lots of autopart stores list them in their databases, but it's rare to be able to get one. There aren't many cores out there, so there is nothing to re-build and sell.

Buying a rebuilt box on ebay and paying the core fee will set you back close to $1,000. The core fee on these is insane. Sending them in to have them rebuilt is a much better option.

 

[brewchief]

I did mine myself, took me a few hours to pull it, strip down, drill and tap for future hydro assist and reassemble. Think I'm going to try to figure out what I need for a donor box to go from a 6 turn box to a 3 turn.

If you take your time and do some research ahead of time it's not really that bad of a job.

 

[bad 68]

There are a couple of things that are tough. One is the seals on the piston slide over the o rings. If you stretch them out you won't be able to get them back in the bore correctly. Another are the recirculating balls.

And last and final is the preload on the input shaft bearing and adjustment on the sector shaft.

I recomend sending it off. I did a full body off frame restoration my self. The PS box beat me.

 

[Dave]

I'm pretty good with mechanical stuff but two things I've never had good luck with are power steering boxes and carburator rebuilds. They work but are never quite right. The kits generally only include seals. It's a compormise to get the preloads right on worn rack and sector gears. I'd send it in.

 

[Big79]

The screw on top, is leaking on mine! I really don't know what to doo. Hmm pay to have a leak fixed or just pay to have it completely rebuilt??? Hmmm the options..

 

[BwoncoHowie]

Here is my adventure with overhauling my PS original box on my '73

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38072

 

[lonesouth]

Here's my foray into the box. I've done two now. They aren't easy, but they really aren't hard either. I'd rate it a 5 out of 10 for difficulty. The hard part is understanding how it works to put it back together right. That, and there are no instructions that are step by step for the bronco box.

If you have any concern about tackling this project. Keep in mind that, more than likely, you will not screw up anything worse than west texas offroad can fix for less than $200. I spent about 5 hours dismantling, cleaning, painting and mocking the box. Reassembly only took about an hour.

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105657&highlight=steering