Lots of play in my steering. Everything else in the steering linkage looks ok, so I'm looking at the steering gear. It leaks fluid, and by the look of the gearbox and everything beneath it, it has been for years. Looks relatively straightforward to replace. Lines to disconnect, use a pitman arm puller etc. Any pitfalls I need to watch out for? I won't be doing it REAL soon, but probably sometime this summer. I looked at the rebuild tech thread, not sure I can do it at my current skill level. Seems like replacing the gear would actually be easier (if a little more expensive). Any opinions welcomed.

 

Replacing it may not yield anything better than you have now. I've heard numerous stories of "new"(reman) steering boxes having the same slop in them that the old boxes have. Then my buddy did the same thing, bought a reman box and the thing leaked from the start. So he tore it apart to replace the seals and said that there was no way anyone had EVER torn that thing down to rebuild it. Straight up rattlecan rebuild out of the box.

Look at some youtube videos, there are a few. I saw one with a Jeep steering box, and that's what my buddy has, and I did my box the same time he was doing his and they are EXTREMELY similar. To the point I'm not convinced that they wont interchange. These old school steering gear boxes may have small differences but they work exactly the same. Get a rebuild kit.

The other thing is that you have a TPI car so you probably have the quick ratio box. There's no guarantee your parts store reman will be a quick ratio box. They may claim it, but you wont know.

For the record, I had the base RS box, so I bought a box from a totalled 89 Formula with allegedly ~85k miles. Looked like a super nice car so I took a risk and got it. It's not perfect but it's a LOT better. One of the better things I did to my car, especially because in the process I got the quicker steering ratio. That alone was worth it, so I think you should stick with the box you have.

 

Ok, but how hard is it to do a rebuild? Autozone has a reman sport steering gear (2.5 turns) with a lifetime warranty for $119. I think that's what is on my car, but I was going to double check before I bought. I wouldn't mind doing the rebuild, especially to keep it all original. But the tech thread on here that I saw looked kind of over my head for where I'm at right now. Youtubing it might help, but I'm still a little shaky on it. Also there is the practical side of it. I'll have to pull the car up on ramps to take the gear off. That means I have to do the rebuild right away and put the gear back on just to get the car off the ramps! I don't want to have it sitting on ramps in my driveway for two weeks while I try to figure out how to do a rebuild. That was part of why replacing it would be worth the extra money. If the rebuild is something I can knock out in a few hours, then by all means yes--but I'm not sure I trust myself to do that yet. I'm still a rookie with most of this stuff. Although I will say that I put off changing the window motor in my Camaro for months because I thought it would be too hard. When I finally broke down and got to it, I Youtubed it to see how, and did it in about 40 min in my yard--so sometimes I'm surprised at how easy things are.

 

Rebuild is relatively easy. Get yourself a nice big table, keep everything organized, and you will be fine. I agree with what was said. Parts store remans are a crap shoot. I did mine myself in a day, as well as cleaning it up and painting it with cast iron looking paint from Eastwood and it came out great. Replace the lines and pump while you have it all apart. The pump can be rebuilt also although my case was bent so I opted for a reman from Cardone and it is working fine. There are some great write ups here and on the web you should check out that will help you out. There was an old video from PowerblockTV that was pretty good also. But the link is now dead. Do a search on Youtube and you should find plenty of good info. Be careful with the ball bearings when you disassemble.

 

BTW - I did my removal with the car on jackstands. When I finished taking it out, I took the car off jackstands, pushed the wheels to point straight and rolled her back into the garage. No need to have her up on ramps for awhile. I think you should give it a shot. It is a good learning experience and you know you put the proper ratio back in the car.

 

So what would I need? Autozone has a PS gear seal kit for $14, PS gear kit for $37, (and it says with or without soft ride suspension--and I have no idea about that on my car) and a gear seal repair kit for $137. The last one seems kind of silly because it's way more than the gear box itself.

 

Get the gear kit for 37 bucks. It has all the parts you need.

 

Ok. Thx 82. I'll probably be trying to tackle that later this summer. I'm sure I'll be on here asking for advice again......

 

No problem. That's what the forum is for.
BTW - save all your old parts just in case you find something missing along the way.

 

Soft ride is FE1 cars, or the base RS and birds with the non-sport suspension and slow ratio box.

 

Makes sense. Kind of what I figured after I thought about it some. I have the ws6 package.

 

IDK guys, I just looked at that tech article on here about steering box rebuilds again. Looks way over my head, not sure I can do that. That guy sounds like he has a good bit of expertise and background that I just don't have yet. We'll see......maybe some online videos would explain it better, I'll have to work on it. An exploded view of everything in the gear would also help me a lot.

 

I don't have any pictures to help you out. But I can give you some reassurance.

I've rebuilt my own steering box and while it took me well over 7 hours, It was easy. You HAVE to take your time. That is all. If you have patience, you can do it. Rebuilding my steering box was the first and only time I've ever had to stop and get on the computer to make sure I was doing it right.

It was involved for sure. But not overly complicated and is do-able if you have the time, patience & tools. Also a good work place to me is a requirement too. I would make sure you have at least 2+ days of time to do it just in case you run into any trouble.

BTW: I used part #8522 from rockauto's online site for my rebuild kit. Got it for $18.

Hope this helps... Good luck with your build.

 

Here is a quote from another TGO member:

^^^This is great info and if you mess up here, you have messed up the whole build. Again, take your time.

 

The ball bearings are different sizes and color coded also. You have to alternate the colors when you put em back. Like everyone said - just work clean and organized and it really is not hard to do. I was a bit overwhelmed when I read that tech article too. That is why I checked out a couple of vids and then it all made sense. I figured I could do a better job then some guy getting paid minimum wage at a rebuild place. I was right.

 

Ok, thanks guys. Lots of great advice, thanks for taking time. I'll keep studying up on it. One thing that will help me is actually seeing the gear come apart piece by piece and seeing how it works. If I understand HOW something works, I have a lot easier time. I really would like to do it because I need the learning experience, and would be proud to say I did it on my own. I'd also like to keep as many of my car's original parts together as I can. It's a very rare 92 Formula with the 5.7 + ttops. Only 200 were even made with that combo in 92. I'm working on a wheel restoration project this week too, I'll post pics when I'm done. I got super lucky there. No clear coat on the outer aluminum. All I have to do there is bust out the Mothers to polish them and then re-paint the laces--and here I was dreading messing around with stripping that aluminum.....What little test spots I did tonight with Mothers cleaned up very nicely, looks like a mirror!

 

I opted for the Lares 1282 - 2.5 turn box from Advance.. used a $50 coupon I googled from advance and free shipping.. shipped direct from Lares in MI to my door.. and core goes to my local store.. Doing suspension work this week and figured I'd freshen up the gear while i'm in there doing the struts, ect.. .. If you have the time to rebuild yourself cool.. but for $126 after discounts and U.S. rebuilt.. Give's me time to work on bigger projects.. Fingers crossed it works as advertised, but i feel better testing a Lares than a Cardone gear.. My opinion only.. we all have one...

http://www.larescorp.com/

 

Autozone has a Duralast 2.5 turn sport reman for $118 with a lifetime warranty, so basically the same deal. Not sure if that's before or after core refund. If I do a rebuild and don't do it right, I'll be doing it again. If I'm not happy with the reman, I can take it back for free. There are huge pros and some cons both ways. Still not sure which way I'll go.

 

If it's something you're doing for the first time, I'd probably have bought a junkyard box and rebuilt that one.