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Loose steering box. Slightly egged mounting frame holes. What to do?

Arrover

Arrover

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I bought this 82 4x4, 1 ton crew cab a couple months ago and I've been tracking down the reason for my sloppy steering. I figured out that my steering box is loose so I removed it from the frame. The truck has a power steering leak. Everything was covered in fluid and I think that was helping the bolts loosen and making the box move on the frame. The frame holes are just a little bit ovalized but not horrible. At one time someone had star washers between the frame and steering box so it must have been doing this for a while. The frame is marred up a little from the star washers and the action of the box sliding on the frame.

My question is: Should I just put it back together with some loctite on the bolts or do you guys think I should install a weld in frame reinforcement kit? I have 33"s on the truck and it's not used for heavy wheeling. It will just be for the street and dirt roads for camping and canoeing. At some point I may step up to 35"s.
 
It might be best to use the frame repair patch anyway,even if the frame has no cracks yet..it will be better than leaving it as-is or welding thick washers over the holes,which is better than nothing...but I would say if the holes are sloppy its only a matter of time before the frame develops cracks,since the box was flexing and loose so long..may as well do it right while it is apart...
 
SouthernYank said:
Couldn't he sleeve the holes as well? :dunno:
Click to expand...

Sure, but of all the trucks of that vintage running around, probably 75% of them have or have had cracked frames where the box bolts on, and most of the rest will crack unless they get scrapped or rust out first.

Best to just go ahead and do the fix now instead of later.

I guess you could call it a factory design flaw, or maybe they just never expected them to still be running this long.

But, even with factory tires and highway driving, some of them crack. So any offroad stuff needs the fix.
 
Yes, but most people would recommend the frame brace in even a stock rig, so might as well. I know I have both the weld-in and bolt in braces and I'm only on 35s.

EDIT: Fordum beat me to it. Ditto to what he said.

.
 
Frame brace is cheap insurance, it should be one of the very first mods done to K5s, My truck is fairly stock with only a 2" lift and very mild (seldom) off roading and I still opt for the ORD steering brace kit.
 
Arrover said:
I bought this 82 4x4, 1 ton crew cab a couple months ago and I've been tracking down the reason for my sloppy steering. I figured out that my steering box is loose so I removed it from the frame. The truck has a power steering leak. Everything was covered in fluid and I think that was helping the bolts loosen and making the box move on the frame. The frame holes are just a little bit ovalized but not horrible. At one time someone had star washers between the frame and steering box so it must have been doing this for a while. The frame is marred up a little from the star washers and the action of the box sliding on the frame.

My question is: Should I just put it back together with some loctite on the bolts or do you guys think I should install a weld in frame reinforcement kit? I have 33"s on the truck and it's not used for heavy wheeling. It will just be for the street and dirt roads for camping and canoeing. At some point I may step up to 35"s.
Click to expand...


I'd say you could do it either way, have you checked to see if the frame is cracked like most do? Although there are a handful of these that have held up with no cracks that get wheeled to sh*$. Guess it's all on what you prefer.
 
I've been lucky with all my Gm 4x4's,none of the frames cracked at the steering box area,I think the fact they all had Fisher plow frames on them beefed the area up enough to prevent them from flexing enough to crack..
I even torched out the frame on my 77 K2500 and saved it so in case I ever needed a "patch",so far I haven't needed it..

That truck did break a lot of the rivets on the crossmembers up front though,and it had to be bolted back together and welded--the former owner had a jerry rigged lift and huge tires on it before I bought it..had a 454 in it too,so it probably was the torque and weight...

I have seen plenty of stock 4x4's crack the frames so badly the box tore loose from it too though,with stock rims and tires!..
I also owned 2 trucks,a 74 C10 and a 79 C10, that were 2WD that cracked the frame at the steering box also,so its not a 4x4 only problem!..
 
Thanks for the help guys! I'm going to order a weld in repair kit. Priority number one right now is making this truck safer and tighter.
 
Another trick you can do when you reinstall the box is get slightly longer bolts and add lock nuts to the back side. Its a pain to get them all on there but you'll have greater clamping force and less chance of it loosening again.
 
That locking nut trick posted above works like a charm. I havnt checked mine in years and just out of thought checked them this weekend and not a single loose one.
 
Just wanted to post a follow up. That you guys for the help. I installed the weld in and bolt in kits. The install was harder than I expected and it took longer than I thought it would. It's not easy welding in the plates in such a tight area. Its also difficult getting the bolts in and everything lined up afterwards - The bolts have to go through the ORD bolt in brace, frame, weld in plate, and then thread into the steering box. I got it all done though. Thread locked the bolts and used nuts with thread locker on them. The GREAT news is that the truck is MUCH MUCH MUCH tighter now. There is hardly any play in my wheel and I can start driving the truck more now since it's safe. I also installed new polyurethane swaybar bushings after the steering project. That helped too since some of the bushings were completely gone..... Thank you guys very much for the good guidance.
 
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