Steering box replacement

[crashfirepm53]

How long and difficult is it to replace the steering box?Any difficult time to remove the shaft from the box?

 

[k20]

i replaced my box, and put on a steerin box brace in like an hr and a half. Just be sure you get the right puller for the pitman arm BEFORE you start on the proj /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif The autozone up the street's puller was too small, so i had to go all over the place to find one wide enough to fit.

 

[crashfirepm53]

Any secrets to lining up the gear box or to keep it centered for when you reinstall?

 

[k20]

well the box should be close, heres whatcha do.
Park the truck, center the wheel. Disconect lines, column, draglink end, etc. The pitman arm should be pointin 90* to the box. Pull it off, then remove the 4 bolts holding the box to the frame, remove box.

Then hold up new box (or get someone to help u, its a heavy f'er), bolt it up. Then be sure the little slot (best description i can think) on the shaft on the box is pointing towards the frame, and the splines are to the side of the truck, and put the pitman arm back on. Now put the Ragjoint on the new box can only go 1 way ( I think, note this when u remove it from the old box).

Now bolt up the draglink, then bolt up the steering column. Refill the resevoir on the pump, jack the front wheels off the ground, start it,cycle wheels back & forth, refill resevoir, and so on till you get all the air bled out.

That should be all, hope you understand it all, if not, just ask again.


O yeh, dont hammer the pitman arm back on. You will damage the seals in the box. There is a little slot in the back of it, I hammered in a chisel (on the workbench) into this slot, spread it apart, then it slid right on the shaft.

 

[1-ton]

One thing I do, when bleeding the air out of a power steering system, is after turning the wheels back and forth for several minutes I turn the the wheel to full-lock on one side, turn the engine off, and let it sit for about 20 minutes; then ditto to the other full-lock side.

 

[surpip]

[ QUOTE ]
i replaced my box, and put on a steerin box brace in like an hr and a half. Just be sure you get the right puller for the pitman arm BEFORE you start on the proj /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif The autozone up the street's puller was too small, so i had to go all over the place to find one wide enough to fit.

[/ QUOTE ]
I broke 2 pullers from autozone trying to get mine off so i cut it off with my grinder /forums/images/graemlins/grind.gif /forums/images/graemlins/weld.gif

 

[stallion85]

On mine I had to drop the box again after installing it to get the steering shaft to line up. For some reason it would not collapse enough to fit over the input shaft of the box. I would test yours prior to or when you put the box on attach the shaft at the same time. As for getting the pitman arm off, I never have used a puller. Just had a big metal pole with some pressure on it while I hit the side of the round end of the pitman arm with a BFH. Comes off like pie /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[1-ton]

I am getting ready to put a brand new (not rebuild) steering box on my rig. I just ordered a new box and pump from these guys.

http://www.corvettesteering.com/index.html

The box was $325 and the pump was $125. There is a gentelman there by the name of Tom...seems like a nice guy...very helpfull.