Steering Unit Rebuild

[bullstanky]

So it appears that the growing oil slick on my driveway is originating from my steering unit--anybody remove/rebuild one of these recently?

What is the best procedure for a painless rebuild?

[73series88]

not yet

[o2batsea]

So it appears that the growing oil slick on my driveway is originating from my steering unit--anybody remove/rebuild one of these recently?

What is the best procedure for a painless rebuild?

If you mean the steering relay in the front cross member, it can be easy or the worst fugging job ever. It should come out so you can get it on the bench. That's when the trouble starts. They are usually rust welded in place and nothing short of a drone strike will loosen it. Best to plan on replacement so you won't worry about banging the crap out of the one in the truck. Pop the TREs off, Pull the arms and take out the retaining bolts (don't forget the ones on the bottom). Then it's all brute force. Worst case scenario is cutting out the relay and welding in a new cross member.

If it is your steering gear box, well that's soooo much less trouble. It's a straight up unbolt-disassemble-new seals-replace thing.

[bullstanky]

Worst case scenario is cutting out the relay and welding in a new cross member.

So, here is a pic of my current front crossmember and leaky relay---definitely time to replace the relay, which, due to all of the rust, probably wouldn't be possible without a new crossmember--which needs to happen anyway
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/65777781@N03/5991924560/

And this is the take off front horn that will go in place of the old one, that has a decent looking relay in it which I was told was steering the truck before it was cut out, but I was given no guarantee that it wouldn't leak

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65777781@N03/5991367547/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65777781@N03/5991367547/

I have a bunch of stuff that is going to get galvanized and I want to have the horn stripped and dunked in the tank, so I need to get the relay out--which doesn't look like too bad of a task given that this horn is in decent condition---should I just plan to replace the relay in this crossmember with a new one after it gets galvanized, and scrap the two old ones?

[cedryck]

they can be a bugger to get out. the one in the pic had alot of grease on it, you might get lucky and have an easy time of it. the box attached to the wheel is easy to get out, and rebuild. I would not rebuild that thing in that comes out of the frame, replace it. There's a huge tenssion spring in there.

[bullstanky]

Then it's all brute force.

Yep--pulled the 4 vertical bolts from the bottom and the horizontal ones off the top, soaked it in liquid wrench and then gave it hell from the bottom with the business end of a 12lb maul. About 25 good whacks got it loose.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65777781@N03/5994543790/

[o2batsea]

Winning! WINNING!