2dwoods

1995 f150 ? Probably for steve83 I heard you say something about red line gear boxes if I remember ,anyway I need to get the play out of my box and I've never been satisfied in the past times I've messed with others turning the preload adjustment so I'm ready to either get a box or rebuild mine. .here's my ? Do you think the play or slop comes more from wore bearings or worm gears.let's say you get a rebuilt box from napa is it rebuilt with just bearings and seals or do you think there's new gears too if just bearings and seals seems like you could rebuild yourself and probably the only thing I've never tore into

clintm6

I put a Redhead in my '95 a couple of month's ago and I'm pretty happy with it. It's not perfect, but it's much better than the Blue Top and the parts store re-man that I had in before it. But you might want to check everything else in the steering system/front suspension too, tie rods, ball joints, radius arm bushings, wheel bearings etc.

2dwoods

Sorry I meant redhead

Steve83

A good reman box is too cheap for me to bother learning how to rebuild one, or to buy the tools. None of the shops I worked in wanted me doing that level of repair, anyway. I ran an Advance (parts store) reman for years in my Bronco, and it worked fine. I put an ACDelco reman into another Bronco (which I later bought), and it worked fine. I've salvaged boxes from wrecks (using common sense, and careful inspections), and they all work fine. The only problems I've had are from collisions, heavy off-roading, and trying to adjust one (decades ago) without the real instructions - which are in this caption:

(phone app link)


When I was shopping to replace it, I looked into RedHead, and I noticed their warranty was ridiculously short - which told me they have no faith in their work. And their price was ~2X any other reman, so it would have to last nearly 2X as long to be worth it, and the warranty suggests it probably won't. That's when I got the Advance box. I've never had a need to shop RedHead again, so IDK if their warranty or price has improved. This is the ACD box:

(phone app link)


At that time, a Ford/MC reman was ~$50 more, and it wasn't my truck or money, which is why I installed the cheaper one.

I've never seen a steering box rebuilder, so IDK what goes on. But when I rebuilt alternators, it was different for each one - we reused what was still working, and replaced any component that failed any test. I assume boxes would be the same: seals if it's just leaking; bearings & more if it's sloppy.

But the worm gear (which has the most friction/wear) doesn't rub against its piston - they're separated by ball bearings (which recirculate through the worm). The sector gear (which has the most force but the least friction) barely wears, and that's exactly what the preload screw takes care of, anyway. So if you're SURE the box is a problem, I'd just get a local reman from a chain store (EXCEPT the zone) that offers a reasonable warranty.




But ARE you sure? There are MANY other components of the steering & suspension that can cause sloppy steering, and IME, the box isn't very likely.

2dwoods

Yes like you I have done a couple frame off Broncos and my 65 f250 but this is my 95 lightning it was time to tighten up everything so I tore the whole frt end out rebuilt it new tie rods ,ball joints ext. Brought in alignment and have some play in box, 200k on truck ,thanks for your response I saw the Ford box for $ 220.00