Has anyone bought a reman steering gear box from Oreilly etc?

[A2ShedsJackson]

Wow, mine had ~200K miles on it when it was leaking. I picked up a spare used steering box off CL from a local cruiser parts collector for $75. Rebuilt both with the kits on closeout for $5ea. I hope to be good for another 300K miles.

I'd use a tool post grinder to do the work on the shaft and then polish. But if it's worn and you don't want to do it again like me for another decade $400 with a warranty isn't too bad.

 

[Woofythewolf]

Any idea what size the bearing balls are? Looking at the pics in the rebuild thread it looks like somewhere around 3-5mm and 54 of them.
I found this site that happens to have 4mm E52100 bearings in .0002" increments from +.0004" to +.004". A little pricey at $70 USD before shipping but assuming I measure accurately, between grinding the sector shaft, adjusting worm shaft preload, and new oversized balls I should have as tight a gearbox as one can get.

Chrome Steel GD100 Ball Bearings (AISI 52100) - Ball and Roller Store - Largest UK Stockist of Precision Balls

Largest UK stockists of Chrome Steel ball bearings.

www.ballandrollerstore.com

 

[Godwin]

Any idea what size the bearing balls are? Looking at the pics in the rebuild thread it looks like somewhere around 3-5mm and 54 of them.
I found this site that happens to have 4mm E52100 bearings in .0002" increments from +.0004" to +.004". A little pricey at $70 USD before shipping but assuming I measure accurately, between grinding the sector shaft, adjusting worm shaft preload, and new oversized balls I should have as tight a gearbox as one can get.

Chrome Steel GD100 Ball Bearings (AISI 52100) - Ball and Roller Store - Largest UK Stockist of Precision Balls

Largest UK stockists of Chrome Steel ball bearings.

www.ballandrollerstore.com

Check this site https://www.ametric.com/section/3052/stainless-steel-balls. I bought ball bearings from here for a FJ60 steering box rebuild.

 

[girupb]

West Texas Offroad will re seal for cheap

Just a heads up. Please avoid using these guys. I understand mistakes but they left the adjustment screw finger tight in my box where you set the preload. Instead of sending a call tag and fixing my issue they asked me to pull the box and set the preload or whatever it is myself. I have also have a friend who used them and had issues as well that they were unwilling to resolve. So, West Texas Offroad aka Redneck Ram is not worth doing business with.

 

[Dan2722]

I pulled mine last year and sent it and a Series 105 sector shaft to Redhead steering gear for a rebuild. They rebuilt with the larger ball bearings and gave me a little money back for the old sector shaft. They did a great job and the driving difference is night and day. After 330k miles the steering was getting scary sloppy at higher speeds and now feels like a new truck.

Red-Head Steering Gears

redheadsteeringgears.com

 

[Woofythewolf]

Check this site https://www.ametric.com/section/3052/stainless-steel-balls. I bought ball bearings from here for a FJ60 steering box rebuild.

Do you recall what size balls you ordered? I reckon they're the same between the 60 and 80, although that site didn't have plus size balls.

Somehow my steering magically got better with the readjustment, even though I set it back to my witness marks from when I started. (+ or - a degree or so). the completely dead slop is now about 1.5" (in spec) but the suggestibility is very weak for another 2 inches to either side.

I'm going to put a UHMW bushing on the firewall so the steering shaft is fully supported (because 3 flex joints in a shaft = slop). The rag joint + ujoint on the inside will allow the in-cab end of the long shaft to still move up and down with maybe an inch of travel on rough roads/flex situations, just without the slop, and I think this will firm up the suggestiveness a lot.

I'm still interested in resealing with the gates kit (it does have well over 300k miles) and larger balls though since I have my parent's vehicle as an extra car right now.
I found this site from one of the CNC machine forums, in the ~0.1" size ball range for diy CNC mill ballscrews they're .24 cents each. And its made in America .
But you do have to "custom order" them though, even if it's one they end up having in stock. They don't just have a catalog with prices and all.

Bal-tec - Products Catalog

www.precisionballs.com

I reckon they'll still be under 50 cents each for our larger size. I do have a micrometer that can accurately read to .0001" (yes, tenths) for ordering them as well.

One technique to add preload on the CNC mill ballscrews is to alternate ball sizes. If you had all oversize preloaded balls, if one ball touches the next one (especially while under load) they will grind on each other resulting in a binding, rough feeling and extremely rapid wear.
But if you have a smaller ball (like one of the original toyota balls) floating between them, then the smaller ball will just rotate and since it's held nicely aligned by the track, it won't even put significant pressure on the track races (which it is now sliding against, but again it's lubricated and has very little force behind it)

Basically, if it has rolling elements it can be preloaded. The only thing that can't be preloaded is the sector shaft.