The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Steering Box rebuild

Sorry for redundancy here. I remember seeing a post regarding replacing steering box bushings while the box is in the truck. I'm unable to locate it now-can someone point me to it. Also, is this proceedure recommended or should I just pull the box/column out.

Thanks in advance

It's pretty easy to take the steering box out of the truck. I don't think you'd be making it easier by not removing it since you'll want to clean out the inside of the box when you rebuilt it and then seal it good with permatex on the gasket and adjustment threada, and while its on the frame that'll be tough to do.

There are two bearings, one seal, one gasket, one adjustment screw, a set of ball bearings and one bushing in a steering box.

The bearings and races are on the steering shaft, one is at the end of the box and the other is at the top. You could change those without removing the box, but you'd have to pull the column so not removing the box doesn't save much effort.

The paper gasket, bushing and adjustment screw are in the side cap. You could replace both of those without removing the box. When you replace the bushing you may have to ream it out to make it fit your sector shaft, I used a brake cylinder hone on the end of a drill and it worked very nicely.

The sector shaft seal is on the side of the box where the pitman arm is. You'll have to remove the pitman arm, side cover and sector to replace that seal, so not pulling the box doesn't save you any effort to do that.

The ball bearings are in the worm gear which is on the steering shaft. You could just remove the column to replace the ball bearings, but not pulling the box doesn't save you much time on that either.

Good luck!

Just an FYI I found interesting. If you tear apart the steering box (AD truck) you will see the bushing pressed into the side plate, (where adjusting screw is.) This cannot be pressed out and no room for a bearing type puller. When you order rebuild kit, you will get two long bushings that fit the pittman arm shaft. You need to basicly cut out the cover plate bushing and then cut down the bushing supplied to press it in place. This didn't make a whole lot of sense to me until I read the service manual. The manual says the cover plate bushing is not servicable and if worn, you need to replace the entire cover plate. Not a luxury we can do these days.
Steve O

Thanks guys.

Like Nifty50 says, getting the bushing in the coverplate out was a pain in the butt- However, it isn't a solid bushing. So, I pushed a screw driver between the bushing and the case and then it pulled out pretty easily- fortunately it was thin brass so it bent easily. Then I ran the hone through the case before putting the new bushing in.

It is strange but the Chev manual says that the cover bushing is not field serviceable by itself and the GMC manual has instructions on how to do it.

If the bushing appears to allow little or no play, does it make sense to R&R the bushing?

I don't have the part #'s handy at the moment, but when I rebuilt my 51 box a couple of years ago, the seal and bushing was still available from GM. I just went to the parts counter at my local Chev. dealer and ordered them. Had them the next day. From what I read at the time, the GM seal was better quality than the aftermarket one available from the vendors. Several people had trouble with them leaking.

Bob

The two main bushings are a standard size and avalible from any bearing dealer. The seal is avalible from NAPA or a bearing shop. The inner bushing in the cap is a odd sized is not avalible any more. The ID is standard, the OD is the odd size. If the small bushing is not worn to bad I would leave it alone, the two big bushings take 90% of the load and are easy to change out. Joe

In the kit I got the inner bushing, the one in the cap, came from GM so it may be a dealer only item. I'll post the part numbers over the weekend for the bearings, seal and bushing. For the ball bearings you are on your own.

Part Numbers:

Sector shaft seal (pitman arm side of box): CR 11055 (chicago rawhide @ NAPA)

Side cover bushing: GM-266316 (dealership)

Adjustment Screw (aka side lash adjusting screw and shims): GM-605142 (dealership)

For the upper and lower bearings, pull the bearings from the box, take them to napa and they can cross reference them using the numbers stamped into the bearing/race.

Napa may also be able to cross the side cover bushing and adjustment screw.

For the side cover gasket, just use gasket material and an exacto to cut to fit. The gasket I got was the wrong size with my 'kit' was too small so thats what I had to do.

oops-

meant to say:

" the for the side cover gasket just use gasket material and an exacto. The gasket I got with my kit was too small and that's what I had to do."

BRIAN posted this in another thread:

The other thing you will need is a genuine GM seal for the sector shaft.

The rebuild kits come with a seal, but those are junk. Group # 6.855, part #07801626

PS

Chevy said $21.67 for that part number, the NAPA seal was about $5.00.