have a look here.

 

I suspect someone is closely reading Hemmings magazines or something equivalent...

 

They are on Rock Auto. Sometimes they are available sometimes not. Currently for a 2001 1500 they have new boxes from 3 manufacturers available.

 

Solid bushing for the pitman shaft seems like a very good upgrade. I replace the cage bearings the factory supplies when I open the boxes up, but they seem pretty weak, especially with the gumbo mudder tires everybody seems to want to run, and there is still a bit of slop even with a new bearing. The bushing the shaft inserts into at the top of the box needs to be tight as well.
The box itself flexes on the frame, even with a 'steering brace' which I have, as well as the 1ton T-style upgrade.
I sat the truck down on 8x8 blocks, right on it's rotors, to see where the slop was. Amazing all the places it can show up. I built a backing plate for outside of the frame because of this.
Any one that tells us they have 'the one answer' for the looseness in GEN II front ends.
Is just plain wrong.
Bump steer, which is NOT hitting a small hole and having the steering wheel jump, track bar bushings, tie rod/link flex, loose box, steering shaft slop, etc. these trucks have it all.

 

Muscle car era box.
They show new internal parts on the website for trucks, worm shaft and steering sector. Part you will not get from the Amazon/AutZone/OReilly auto rebuilders. They also state on their website that most shafts for the cores they process are junked. They use new parts for boxes with out of tolerance gears.

 

I ordered one of these yesterday. We'll see. It's for a customer and I discussed options with them.

They told me $325 + $60 FedEx to CO plus $100 core but those are Trudeau bux. I was charged $396.15 Brandon bux.

I can't recall having recently shipped something to the great northern land of martial law so depending upon customs, fees and my time it may not be worth it to return the core. That said, if I like the product then I also like the idea of keeping them flush with cores to rebuild for others. I'll cross that bridge later.

 

Let us know how this works out. GOOD steering boxes are becoming akin to hens teeth.....

 

Yep I'm considering it 100% experiment. I'm hoping for the best but expecting minimal improvement. But there's no way to know until I try.

On a side note, I counted about 3.5 turns lock to lock on this truck. Maybe more like 3-3/8. I'm considering that a 3 turn box and ordered accordingly.

This truck is a '99 1500 extra cab but it's the somewhat rare long bed in this config, so I figured a 3 turn was appropriate as this was essentially the longest wb offered in 2nd Gens except perhaps for the fabled factory 4-door crew cabs -- not sure what wb was on those if they exist at all

 

I think the only four door 2nd gens I have seen (with four actual doors...) were custom builds. There was a six-door Ford F-350 at a local body shop here. That was a LONG truck.

 

Again, I saw a Diesel Brothers where they claimed they were a factory option but extremely rare. They had one and built it up.

BUT believing everything you see on reality TV shows is the same as believing everything you read on the internet, so I am not claiming that show or this forum is a credible source. Actually I think the crew cabs came from racoon dogs and weren't a leak from the Dodge factory ???? Makes sense....

edit: I was curious so I did a little more digging. Found a couple examples on YT which were stated to be conversions, and read some Reddit comments briefly that said it was a company in MN but they no longer do them. I never saw the name of the conversion company stated. I'm an old Ford guy so I was familiar w Centurion but I don't know that Centurion did Dodge stuff, so no idea.

I could spend all day down the rabbit hole but I'm now beginning to believe none of them were factory