Steering box rebuild

[Andy]

well today decided to bite the bullet & strip & rebuild a spare steering box as mine has started leaking, so with the aid of this thread on mud
https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/steering-gear-box-rebuild.443494/#post-6175447
Away I went
Also fitted the upgraded ( thicker) shaft from a 105 and all the seals etc except for the 4 Teflon ones on the piston assembly as they weren’t included in the seal kit.

Not to tricky with the aid of the above excellent guide, took a couple of hours, but havnt yet removed the box from the truck & fitted the refurbed one yet.

The pitman arm came off fairly easily, the 10mm Allen bolt took quite a bit of effort, but with a bit of heat & the impact gun out it came, the worst bit was getting the steering input uj off the shaft!

One tip is to have a bucket / box under the bench vice to catch any of the 44 ball bearings that you may drop when reassembling, saves scrabbling about looking for the one you drop!!!, oh, and use plenty of atf to lube it up when refitting the piston

Hopefully get it swapped over next weekend

 

[clivehorridge]

Brave man Andy, I had mine rebuilt (3 times now) at my friendly service workshop.

First time for seals, second time a broken quadrant shaft (sheared off at the pitman) and third time when the new shaft twisted like a candy-bar.

That’s when @chapel gate told me about the upgrade...

All good now again...

 

[Lorin]

I’ve been avoiding doing this! I want to do exactly as you’ve done and fit the upgraded 105 shaft as well as the seals. Good to know it’s achievable in a day!

 

[Andy]

I’ve been avoiding doing this! I want to do exactly as you’ve done and fit the upgraded 105 shaft as well as the seals. Good to know it’s achievable in a day!

I havnt yet actually swapped over the boxes, dont know how tricky (time consuming) that will be, but going on the rebuilding time of the spare box on the bench, I would say a day is quite doable.

That guide from mud was a great help

 

[Andy]

Took the box off the truck this afternoon,no problems at all, but then shock horror etc etc, found some chassis rust where the box bolts to the chassis. Gave it a thump with my trusty hammer & some thick flakes came away, although I couldn’t bash a screwdriver through it!
Decided to cut it out to be on the safe side, and actually the metal was really thick & very solid, but if I hadn’t done so it would have been on the to do list.
Welded in a bit of 1/4 plate and painted it up ready to bung the refurbed box in tomorrow, only took about 1/2 hr to get the old one out.

 

[clivehorridge]

While it’s off and you have all the kit, I’d weld a plate over the whole area including the dropper for the brace.

That’s the weld I had fail, brace to chassis, no rot but a crack all around the weld.

 

[Lorin]

While it’s off and you have all the kit, I’d weld a plate over the whole area including the dropper for the brace.

That’s the weld I had fail, brace to chassis, no rot but a crack all around the weld.

Definitely worth strengthening this area. Is one of the few known failure spots on the 80. Interesting to look at the plates offered here - they have both inner and outer.... https://www.the4wdshed.com/80-series-steering-box-chassis-repair-plates

 

[IRLGW]

where did you get the 105 shaft from?

 

[clivehorridge]

where did you get the 105 shaft from?

Courtesy of @chapel gate

 

[frank rabbets]

In my experience a 1mm thick piece of steel trapped in a damp place will give you 10mm thick rust when it's all reacted with the salt/water. Really frightening. When I used to restore car chassis I used to shovel up the rust and fill several dustbins just for one car.