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Had to post up a fantastic experience I had last Friday. Saw an episode of Wheeler Dealers where they did a 65 Pontiac GTO. Mike, one of the hosts, took his Saginaw 800 steering box (essentially same as ours) to a shop in Oxnard, CA called Express Parts Exchange. Mike got to be in the shop and watch as their expert rebuilt the entire box from memory.
I decided to go there myself. They said I could be in the shop and watch and I did. I met David, the guy who does the rebuilds. He is a master in every sense of the word. Did my original steering box in 45 mins including a full operation and full pressure test on the bench to prove it works properly and no leaks.
And for only $175.
I had bought an O-ring kit and was ready to tackle the rebuild myself but my spider senses were tingling and decided I better play it safe and let someone else do it. And I was right.
David did have to fish for a seal in other kits, something that would have tripped me up. He finally got the exact correct size and finished the assembly.
He had drifts, punches and pry bars that had been used for 25 years doing the same thing. I would have spent hours figuring out how to remove various parts. He had the whole box disassembled in about 3 minutes.
Assembly was done from memory and watching him set the proper preloads and tolerance was very cool. He just rolled through it.
Best part was the test bench. Hooked it up to a real pump, fired it up and read 500psi to 1,000 psi as he worked it. No leaks, no noise, 100% verified.
Had an old man GM Mechanic back in 88 that worked on my TPI while under warrantee. That guy was fantastic. He retired from Pontiac and opened up a little shop where he did stuff like Tootie mentioned. He was awesome with the TPI system and I used him. Guy passed away short time later. He was like 75
Did my original steering box in 45 mins
........
And for only $175.
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That is the only part I can focus on, can't get past it. That works out to an hourly rate of $233.33!
That's the pay rate for an experienced and proven lawyer or experienced doctor working in a specialty....
Or a guy who knows how to a Saginaw 800 steering box works and has all the tools and parts.
"There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he retired. Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem it was having with one of its multimillion-dollar machines. He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and proudly stated, "This is where your problem is." The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges. The engineer responded with the following: "Chalk: $1. Knowing where to put it: $49,999."
Or a guy who knows how to a Saginaw 800 steering box works and has all the tools and parts.
I was trying to subtly point out that you paid way too much. As was said, there are scores of YouTube videos, pictorials and write ups by Joe Blow about how to do this. It's your money though so if you are happy and feel you received a good deal that's all that matters. But still, why go through the research and then the hassle of starting a thread if you're just going to take your box down to a repair place? https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...one-quick.html
I appreciate this thread and I think that was a more than reasonable price to have your steering box completely rebuilt and reconditioned. I'm going to take my steering box there at some point.
