Power Steering Gear Box Rebuild - 1987 FJ60 (2 Viewers)

[bergerob]

I am in the process of removing and rebuilding my leaky Power Steering Gear Box. My plan is to send it to West Texas Off Road for the rebuild.


I have read some threads on this process & thought I would attempt it.
Here are a couple, I thought were pretty close to my project.
S&S1stCruzer
and
Hank14

My question is about keeping things aligned.

Before I pull the Pitman arm off the Steering Box, how should I mark them to ensure proper alignment later?

The same is true for the steering shaft?

 

[bergerob]

Pictures of the tear down

Here are a few pics of the disassembly.
I will be taking more as I go.

I already had a problem with the return line & rounded over the nut.

I will be calling CDan tomorrow.

 

[slcfj62]

I am in the process of removing and rebuilding my leaky Power Steering Gear Box. My plan is to send it to West Texas Off Road for the rebuild.


My question is about keeping things aligned.

Before I pull the Pitman arm off the Steering Box, how should I mark them to ensure proper alignment later?

The same is true for the steering shaft?

I just sent mine off to them last week. They told me to leave the pitman arm on the steering box and to ship in to them in a 5 gallon bucket. The hard part was separating the pitman arm from the relay rod. I "borrowed" a pitman arm puller tool from Autozone (they have two sizes, the smaller one is the one you want). It was still a smidge too big, so I squeezed it with a C clamp while cranking on it until it popped off.

 

[S&S1stCruzer]

If you can leave the pitman arm on the sector shaft keep it on. I took my off with out marking it and I had a hell of time trying to get it where it was. There are some machine marks on the pitman arm and on sector that give a point of reference.

My other problem might be that I steering shaft didn't go on exactly where it came off of. I needed a second hand but no one was around at the time during the install. I did the rebuild myself and had it ported locally. But have yet to do the ram assist. In fact I bought another steering gear box that I want to send out and have them do the rebuild and port.

 

[hank14]

My Pitman arm and output shaft on the gear box were marked from the factory- so was the 62 one I swapped in it's place. I used a yellow paint marker from NAPA to mark the steering shaft, then adjusted the steering wheel with the relay rod when I put it back together.

Have fun!

 

[NocalFJ60]

You really don't need to mark anything. There is a line on the pitman arm and sector shaft that lines up when you reinstall it to the box. Also on the steering shaft the bolt goes through a notch so you can't get that far off either.

I would pull the pitman arm if you have the tool before sending it to them.

Reinstall the pitman arm when you get it back. The install it with one bolt to hold it and attach the steering shaft and make sure the notch lines up to put the screw back in and then attach the tie rod to the pitman arm. Check and make sure the steering wheel is close to center and then bolt everything down. Adjust the drag link to align the steering wheel a little if needed. Also if you haven't pulled the clip and adjust the end of the drag link with a big screwdriver I would do that. You want to tighten it down and then back it off some and then reinstall the clip.

I would recommend West Texas to anyone that needs their PS gearbox rebuilt. They really went out of their way to help me out and make everything right. I appreciate a good business that stands behind their work.

 

[grant5127]

There's folks in the Austin area that rebuild those boxes........
Be more convenient than shipping it off in a 5 gal. bucket and having to wait........

 

[Pavegel]

Are any special tools required to do a rebuild? I was thinking of taking this on myself.

 

[slcfj62]

There is a link here to do that:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/156624-fj60-hydro-assist-porting.html

But once I realized how expensive the rebuild kit is, and that it was just a few dollars more to have the West Texas Rednecks rebuild it, I opted for the second option. Of course my decision didn't factor in how much it costs to ship something that heavy. Even so, I have enough other projects going with the Cruiser, I didn't need to learn to rebuild the steering box as well. I think that is a once in a Cruiser lifetime thing.

 

[Mace]

$50 is expensive?

 

[slcfj62]

My bad. I saw a $100 dollar price tag somewhere that I don't remember. $50 and I might have rebuilt it myself. Keep me straight.

 

[Mace]

In the porting link I posted a e-mail of a guy that sells the rebuild kits for ~ $50.00

That is the one I used and am very happy with it..

 

[bergerob]

Removed SGB

Well I was able to remove the SGB.

A couple things that I did was to straighten the wheels and took a picture of where the steering shaft connects to the gear box.

I then slid the shaft off the box and noticed a grove that aligns with the bolt. See pictures below.

Once that shaft was removed, I focused on the tie rod. I got a Tie Rod Puller from an Auto Parts store, but had no luck with it. So I resorted to my Pickle Fork & BFH. I had to stack two pickle forks to finally pop the tie rod.

The problem is that the thread is still in the pitman arm.

What happened? Is this bad?

 

[bergerob]

Another picture of the Pitman Arm

Will I need to get a new tie rod?

Here is one last picture of all the fluid, grease, and grime cleaned off.

 

[grant5127]

Heres a cross-cut view of what the end looks like inside.......

Just remove the cotter pin from the end cap and unscrew it and reinstall.....

It'll be ok, unless theres internal damage, if so $or sells a kit........

You can avoid this problem by just removing the pit-man arm, it has to be removed anyway to replace the seals............

 

[hank14]

You better plan on getting the repair kit from SOR that Grant mentioned. (It's actually the relay rod, not the tie rod). I messed the threads up on mine, and had to buy a whole new relay rod from CDAN when I replaced my gear box.

The last thing you want is to put a new gear box on and have play in your steering that you're not sure is from the gear box rebuild or other steering components.

 

[grant5127]

The last thing you want is to put a new gear box on and have play in your steering that you're not sure is from the gear box rebuild or other steering components.

X2.... If I reused that end, I'd be driving around with the lingering thoughts of it popping off while tooling down the road........

 

[bergerob]

Looks like another phone call to CDAN

I think I have Dan on my speed dial.

Just to be safe vs sorry, I am calling Dan to replace the relay rod.

I should just be able to press out the ball/bolt from the Pitman Arm right?

 

[bergerob]

Famous Last Words

While I am here......

I also mentioned in Post 11 of this thread about a steering "Clunk".

Steering Clunk


People have mentioned the steering shaft needs to be lubed. Do I have the right spot circled?

Has anyone replaced a later Steering Shaft (one with a grease zerk) with an earlier one?

 

[slcfj62]

Now that you've got it out and are not planning on re-using it, I would think a whack with a hammer ought to to the trick. Why wouldn't the tie rod/pitman arm puller you used pop the relay rod off the pitman arm?