Steering Column Noise

[ElJefe]

Ouch... that does not sound good. It sounds like someone severely overtightened the box in the past and either a) the worm and sector have worn on center creating a low spot or, b) the worm is slightly bent. Neither sounds good. I don't know what a replacement worm and sector shaft would run but can't be cheap. I wonder what the smart shopper price is.

I don't know how much you would be in for a rebuilt box, but I think that you should be able to pick up a good used unit and do the reseal yourself with a factory seal kit for a couple hundred bucks.

 

[Darwood]

Ouch... that does not sound good. It sounds like someone severely overtightened the box in the past and either a) the worm and sector have worn on center creating a low spot or, b) the worm is slightly bent. Neither sounds good. I don't know what a replacement worm and sector shaft would run but can't be cheap. I wonder what the smart shopper price is.

I don't know how much you would be in for a rebuilt box, but I think that you should be able to pick up a good used unit and do the reseal yourself with a factory seal kit for a couple hundred bucks.

Thanks ElJefe for your assitance on this. It's been invaluable. I'm hoping it wasn't me that overtightened the box :whoops:

At any rate it seems like cruiserparts.net has rebuild boxes for $500 + core and used boxes for $300. http://www.buy-steering.com formerly the steering store has boxes for $650 + core. That rebuilt box is looking more attractive considering the price on seals and then having to rebuild it.

I'll need to talk to CDan on pricing as well. Any other ideas on where to get a good used box?

 

[ElJefe]

I just did a quick search on car-part.com and came up with quite a few boxes listed in the $150-$250 price range. Like anything... no guarantees when buying used gear, but a few phone calls never hurt. I'm sure one of those came off a low mileage mall-missile. I'd bet that most of what is sitting in the yards was never touched after leaving the factory and would be in great shape internally.

http://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?userSearch=int&userPID=1000&userLocation=USA&userIMS=&userInterchange=BE%40EA&userSide=&userDate=1996&userDate2=1996&dbModel=43.9.1.1&userModel=Lexus%20LX450&dbPart=551.1&userPart=Steering%20Rack%2FBox%2FGear&sessionID=636&userPreference=price&userUID=0&userBroker=&iKey=&userPage=2

If you decide to go used and re-seal... the factory seal kit for the box in my buddy's 60 series was only about 30 bucks from Specter and was a couple of teflon rings for the piston and some o-rings for the shafts. Bearings were fine after 20 years of "marginal" maintanance (*cough* neglect). If you go that route I think that you could pull apart/clean/re-seal one of these things in an afternoon. We did his in a day and that included stripping/repainting the housing. Like anything else... do you have more money than time this month or more time than money??

Oh yeah... one more thing. His 60 originally came from Lake Tahoe area (Road Salt) and the pitman arm was so rusted on it took a 150-ton axle press to separate it from the sector shaft. Be ready if you get a wet weather box.

 

[Sackman]

Mine has the same or a similar issue. When on the highway or rough roads it makes this kind of clicking noise... I havent heard it in a while though, but every now and then. I was told that it is a seal..?