Author Topic: where's the best place to get a new steering box?? (Read 423 times)

SELLERSRODSHOP · « **on:** July, 25, 2011, 09:45:21 AM »

the alignment shop called this morning & said he didn't want to try to align the car yet as it really has too much slop in the gearbox. where would be the best place to get one? 69 with power steering...

Jonk67 · « **Reply #1 on:** July, 25, 2011, 10:37:52 AM »

No personal experience with him but Chockostang sells rebuilt:
http://chockostangclassicmustang.com/discbrakepowersteering/steeringboxs.html

Are you asking new Ford or FR/Ididit new? You should be able to fab those in with the 2pc. column or may look at Borgeson, it wasn't out yet when I did mine.

I had mine rebuild by Stangerssite but took 6+mos. quality of work was excellent but he's just a one many old school shop. I did take ~1/2" of play out of mine before having it rebuilt by opening the cover, scooping out the old grease and repacking with Ford spec. The PS gearboxes fair a lot better for wear than the manual ones since the PS takes the effort off the box. If i can come help, let me know.
Jon

SELLERSRODSHOP · « **Reply #2 on:** July, 25, 2011, 10:53:59 AM »

i'll give them a call. it's just a pisser that with everything i've got on me right now, i can't get one simple thing done without creating more work

. steph gets her knee replaced tomorrow, so no telling when i'll get any time to tear into this thing....

Horseplay · « **Reply #3 on:** July, 25, 2011, 11:17:59 AM »

Check with Borgeson. As far as I know they sell rebuilts for most mustangs. They also offer to buy old ones. I think it's like $65 or something for a 65/66, if I recall correctly.

Midlife · « **Reply #4 on:** July, 25, 2011, 02:30:36 PM »

Someone is giving you a line of bull. The steering gearbox has nothing to do with alignment, which is all about the upper and lower control arms, tie rod ends, and drag link. The Pitman Arm connects the drag link to the gear box. If the gear box is worn, your steering will not be precise and you can be all over the road, but once it is pointing straight ahead (at rest in the shop), everything else can be aligned to be within spec.

Your observation of the car's handling, while driving, will be poor with a bad gear box, but that has nothing to do with alignment issues.

Horseplay · « **Reply #5 on:** July, 25, 2011, 03:40:39 PM »

Quote from: Midlife on July, 25, 2011, 02:30:36 PM

Someone is giving you a line of bull. The steering gearbox has nothing to do with alignment, which is all about the upper and lower control arms, tie rod ends, and drag link. The Pitman Arm connects the drag link to the gear box. If the gear box is worn, your steering will not be precise and you can be all over the road, but once it is pointing straight ahead (at rest in the shop), everything else can be aligned to be within spec.

Your observation of the car's handling, while driving, will be poor with a bad gear box, but that has nothing to do with alignment issues.

I'm pretty sure the guy just doesn't want to do an alignment and have him think it was a crap job because of the loose steering. He was probably just being proactive and helpful. Now, if was trying to sell him the box at a stupid price...

SELLERSRODSHOP · « **Reply #6 on:** July, 25, 2011, 04:49:46 PM »

he said he would have a hard time setting the toe in correctly with the slop in the box. he offered to get one & put it on, but said he could tell i had been doing some work on the car & figured i would want to do it myself.

much better than the expreience i had with the truck in jan. that shop( that i no longer do business with) took all the shims out of the control arms & tried to tell me the ball joints were bad. after i caught that, they tried to charge me $90 to "install shims" on top of the $79 alignment charge due to the front end being out so bad. after i explained to them that the addition & removal of shims is actually how you align the front end & i wasn't going to pay an extra $90 for what is covered in the normal charge as standard proceedure, they adjusted the bill accordingly. i haven't been back. sad thing is i did alot of business with them up until that.

buening · « **Reply #7 on:** July, 27, 2011, 09:57:03 AM »

I would recommend verifying that it is indeed the box and not the control valve. Have someone move the steering wheel back and forth within the slop range and see if the pitman arm is even moving. If no movement from pitman, then its a sloppy steering box. If the pitman arm is moving and the drag link is not, then there is slop in the control valve. My 70 had major slop from the control valve, and even rebuilding it didn't help because the main housing was too worn.