Does having a "Z" cast into the steering gear housing mean anything? There are a bunch of numbers on the housing which I do not know what they mean. How could I tell which gear I have? Is turning the wheels from lock to lock the only way to tell?

 

I think the "Z" cast into the steering box means you have a quick ratio steering box. It's something like two and a half or two and a quarter turns lock to lock.

 

The "Z" means nothing.

Thanx, andyZ28

 

Try a search. I thought I knew the answer but I was wrong. I forget the correct answer. Find that old post via search and you'll find out.

 

andy is right. i pulled a steering box from a '91 Z28 that had a Z stamp and it was 2.25 turns lock to lock. my stock box from my '87 LT also had a Z stamp but it was 2.5 turns lock to lock.

 

I have the #26000525 stamped on it and I read some other posts talking about that number. I am willing to bet that it is a standard housing for the gear no matter what the ratio. The number is probably the part number for the housing.

Another thing I was curious about was how hard is it to change the steering gear? I mean three bolts, the pitman arm and the power steering lines. Is this something that is relatively easy to do or is there a lot of work in aligning the new gear with the steering column?

 

GM identifies their steering boxes by an ink stamped two letter code. Such as HX or AM. They are stamped on the front cover plate (the round one) and on the top cover plate (the alum one w/the adjuster nut on it and four bolts).

Problem is, the ink is easily removed by cleaning. If that is the case the only way to tell what gear it is is to open it up. When new the ink stamped letters are easy to read as they are a large block style font.

RBob.

P.S. HX is the quick ratio box. . .

 

it's pretty easy to change, i just did mine two days ago. the repalcement one i had already had the pitman arm on it so i didnt have to take off my old one so i just loosened the nut on the pitman to center link bolt, removed the two lines, and removed the three bolts holding the gear to the frame. to get to one of these bolts you have to loosen a fender support that's held by three screws, no biggie though. there's a plastic cover that goes over the column to gear attachment, it's hooked around one of the hydraulic lines, just pull it back and there will be one bolt that you have to loosen and then just pry back the column off the output shaft on the gear. the output shaft is splined and has a flat so there is only one way to reattach the column. after you loosen the three mounting bolts you'll be able to lift the pitman arm off the bolt that attaches it to the center link