I decided to post more detail so the forum can correct me on things I did wrong. It will help me to learn. After cleaning (too much dried hard grease) and inspection I found my worm shaft looked okay except the very end was rough on the edge. A bit of crocus cloth smoothed it out some. Fortunately it was not in the area where the worm bearing runs. The other end of the worm looked good. The bearing race on the steering mast looked good. The race on the adjustment nut looked good. I figure I dodged two bullets here. Two of the bearings fell out of the upper worm bearing retainer. The lower worm bearing retainer was bent and bearings floating free. The worm nut looked great inside. I had a few bearing balls that needed replacement (black spots). The bearing guide had dimples where the balls had jammed in the past. I got NOS bearing guides (4X at $5 each plus shipping) at oldsobsolete. I ordered the steering box repair kit from Classic Truck Parts (with Stovebolt discount at $58 plus shipping) and only installed the gaskets and bearings. The original bushing, at the pitman arm side, was in good shape. I decided to not replace the seal (packing) for fear of damaging the bushing. The bushing at the adjuster plate needs replacing but I don't presently have a way to remove the old bushing. I figure it will take a lathe. I'm still looking for information on what others have done in this situation. If anyone knows, I would appreciate some advice. Since it's a plate that I can remove, I figured I can do this later if needed. Unfortunately the new bushing provided will need to be cut down to fit. It's too long. Both new bushings are the same dimension and I'm wondering if Classic made a mistake. I decided to continue assembly. I followed the shop manual steps. Getting the bearing balls into the worm and worm nut wasn't too bad but filling up the bearing guides without them falling out was a laugh with my stubby fingers. It took grease and patience but finally I got the guides to set in the worm nut properly without force. I'm now filling up the box with corn head grease (slow process) while turning the steering box to make it settle down some. I almost have one tube (14 ounces) inside now and don't know how much it will take to fill the box. Does anyone know? The shop manual says to fill to the plug hole but this was easy to pour gearbox oil and I'm curious on the amount required. I count 6 1/4 turns of the steering wheel (stop-to-stop) and the movement feels uniform and quiet. Before the repair it sounded like popping and crunching. I've done adjustment by feel but need to buy a tension gauge (spring scale) to better adjust the worm bearings and gear mesh to the spec in the shop manual. I forgot to mention that I could see wear in the gear teeth but it seems there is just enough adjustment (flush with the locknut) for meshing. I figure the steering box wear was due to old and poor lubrication. My initial goal was to get the truck where I can steer it around in the driveway and I think it's good for that now. In my local area, a used steering box will cost $125 (I remove) but there is no guarantee on the condition of the worm shaft and worm nut. I've seen rebuilt steering boxes go for over $250 if they receive a rebuildable core. Then there's shipping of the core and shipping of the rebuild. I figured it was worth a shot to attempt a repair myself (a rookie).
