So my input shaft seal was leaking profusely and I decided to rebuild my steering box. Quite a few years back I had a leak at the pump/reservoir somewhere so I replaced the pump and reservoir together about 6 years ago. Every since then I've thought my steering was weird. It seems like it lost its return to center function after turning a corner, and if you are sitting still and whip the steering wheel around, it will continue to turn by itself until it hits the stop. It does this in both directions freely. I was very hopeful a rebuild would fix this, but things just seem to have gotten slightly worse. I got it all put back on the truck and when the wife is in the truck turning the wheel with the axle off the ground, I can hear a pretty good pop from what I'm assuming is a ball bearing problem. I'm confident they all went back in correctly. The only thing in the rebuild kit i didn't use was the large teflon seal on the end of the piston, as it would NOT seat back into the housing with the new o-ring in place, so I reused the old teflon seal. I'm hesitant to buy a new box until I can figure out why with the axle on the ground, with the truck running, you can turn the wheel from one lock position to the other with just spinning the steering wheel. There's absolutely no resistance. I also have a good 3-4" play in the wheel before the input shaft starts moving at the box. After all this, and marking everything as I took it apart, my steering wheel is 90 degrees off from straight now. When I'm driving straight, the wheel is 90 degrees to the left side. I could understand 180 degrees, but 90? Anyone have any pointers or suggestions as to why my steering is acting in this manner, especially the no resistance thing with the axle on the ground. It's acting as if there aren't 35" tires touching the ground, very strange. Thanks fellas...

 

Need to readjust your steering box. There is a procedure for it in the service manual. (you do have one, right?) That should take care of most of the slop, and possibly solve some of the other issues as well. If not, I think I would take a long, hard, look at the pump.... Flow control valve may be sticking.

 

Yea, I've got the manual. The main reason I finally decided to tackle the rebuild is because the oil on the street in front of my house was starting to get out of control. It's always done the no return to center and very very light steering whipping from lock to lock since the day I replaced the pump. I drive the truck maybe 6 times a year when the snow is real bad or I have to haul something, but I'm feeling rather defeated today. Ha...thanks for the response. I know I can be off by 25% at the pitman arm as there are 4 evenly placed notches. I marked the arm, and the gear housing, but not the shaft. My 6 year old decided to climb up in the truck and screw with the wheel while I had the input shaft disconnected. I just need to find center again and I'll be happy. Then I can try to adjust out the slop.

 

While you are redoing the adjustments, you can recenter the steering as well, as you need to disconnect the steering shaft for one of them. Careful with the steering wheel though, the clock spring only has limited travel... Turn it to far, and it breaks.

 

Fair enough. Thanks. I would presume if he broke the clock spring while messing with the wheel there would be some sort of immediate symptom I would notice? Thanks again.

 

Ugh, just get a new one. You actually tore it apart to put new seals, etc. in? That's a huge job. For not much reward.

Can't say much for new ones though. Most shops sell crap rebuilds, so I went with Redhead and had to send the first one back for a replacement before it worked. And it only works okay. Not great. Stupid steering.

 

I just ran to Napa and had them warranty swap the pump from 2012. Just got back and trying to get this dang pulley to seat all the way. Wished I had bought a better kit back in the day for pulley r&r. Mines an AmPro, it works okay, but it's definitely fighting me to get the pulley fully seated. I'm about 3/8" from fully seating it. Once I get the new pump in and steering adjusted, I'll report back.

 

I rented a kit from Oreillys and it worked well enough. At first I though it wasn't seated as far as the original, but since I didn't take a pic, I had no idea. After I put it together, I checked the belt closely to see how it ran and it was fine and true. I don't think it goes on flush (the pulley) but I don't remember.

 

I just finally said screw it and broke out the impact. She's fully seated now. Perfectly flush.

 

Instead of rebuilding the box you could of just got one from napa for $160 ! I put one on mine 2 yrs ago and its good !