Rebuilding a Steering box?

[Dozerboy]

Who has done it and what exact seal kit do you need? My box is tight so I don’t want to chance a new one. It’s the input shaft that is leaking. I see just a seal kit for that. Is that going to cut it and is Gates a good brand? Any other tips?


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[Chevy1925]

so ive rebuilt a couple. i used a Gates off amazon but none of the sealing rings fit. only things that did were the seals and couple other things.

they are honestly simple. mark where the input shaft nut is in comparsion to the body so you can tighten it back down to where it was (needs a certain preload or you risk killing the bearing) and then tear it all apart. just keep an eye on where everything goes as it comes out. nothing will jump out at you or fling out. When you go to pull the rack out, there is a u shaped deal that holds all the balls inside. that is how the worm gear moves the rack. take it apart and dont loose the balls. should be black and chrome ones.

i clean everything extremely well and assemble back together with vaseline or power steering fluid. the vaseline is great to hold the balls in the u-shape cup when you put it in. you have to alternate the black and chrome balls as you install them as they are different sizes. you also have to drop teh balls in one at a time between the rack and worm gear as you feed the rack in. you dont want any gaps there and you dont want the balls going in the wrong way. that is the trickiest part of the whole thing because you also have to get the rack to stop with it filled with the bearings in a spot where the u-shape feeder can be put back in.

there is a decent you tube video of a real similar saginaw box on how to feed it in and what to do. ill see if i can find it.

once you do one, its really simple to do another.

 

[Chevy1925]

if you want to just the input shaft seal (its usually that or the sector shaft seal), its pretty easy to do without tearing the rest of the box down

 

[JoshH]

I bought a few different seal kits from Edelmann, Gates, and Oreilly house brand (MasterPro). I'm pretty sure they're all the same kit in a different box. They all had almost the same part number and the package inside the box looked the same. It took me a few tries, but I finally found one that all the seals were correct. I think the part number was 8776, but I can't swear to that. Assuming we are talking about your LBZ, that should be the one you need if I'm remembering correctly. Like James said, getting the balls inside is the hardest part. Once you get 2 or 3 going, it isn't too difficult, but sometimes it is a pain to get them feeding in there properly.

edit: the Oreilly part number is 28401430 if you want to find one local.

 

[Dozerboy]

Thanks guys it is on my LBZ. Ya I will probably just do the input seal then. Since I’ve kept up up with the maintenance I don’t want to pull it all apart if I don’t need too. Probably even do it in the truck since I think I have the room with me being in the middle of a HG job.


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