Apologies if this has been mentioned but I don't recall seeing a thread on it here. Apparently the 4th Gen steering boxes will bolt up to the 2nd Gen and are a different design.

Does anyone know if the 2nd Gen pitman arm transfers to the new box? RA has some Moog arms at ~$8 right now and I'm inclined to order one just in case.

Note I'm not talking about swapping to 4th Gen steering linkage, ie tie rod and drag link. This is about the steering box aka steering gear

 

For a current $8 arm price, might be good to try one and let folks know how it works. It would be great if the 4th gen steering box fits and works properly on a 2nd gen truck. With the way engineers are prone to changing things, I'd be surprised if it fits without issue.

 

For some reason I'm inclined to believe it'll fit, assuming threads for the hydraulic lines are the same. I have nothing to back up my "belief" though.

If true I think this should simply destroy the market for Borgeson, RedHead, etc. No reason to seek out expensive aftermarket (which seem to have questionable results anyway) when a stock, off-the-shelf upgrade is readily available.

I see Lares even offers a "heavy duty" version of the 4th Gen box, but I have no idea how it differs.

 

To my knowledge, Borgeson has stopped selling their 2nd gen steering gearboxes. I contacted them last year about my box and that's what I was told.

If you decide to undertake the swap, please let us know how it goes...

 

Poking around O'Reilly's site, it suggests the pressure line is M18x1.5 on both. The return line shows as M16 for 2nd Gen and M20 for 4th Gen. Of course, this is excellent news as the return line is no big deal. I'd still need a fitting and bit of flared hard line but from there rubber hose and a hose clamp are perfect.

But yeah, the plot thickens and I'm now wondering about other things like input spline count....

 

Engineers at their best on the 4th gen! Thanks for posting what you've found so far.

 

Also it looks like output shafts are 32mm (2nd Gen) vs 41mm (4th Gen) but that just means you'd need the 4th Gen pitman arm IF drag link tapers are the same

 

Also, this looks like the perfect way to get the return line (for a '10 2500)

 

That's a pretty significant difference in output shafts. In order to accommodate that massive output shaft, wonder if the housing is larger and sits further out on the frame of the truck - for example, if I recall correctly, the Borgeson steering box sits further out on the frame by about 1/4".

 

I don't see that as a problem except I don't know at what point a shorter drag link starts to cause bump steer.

Another thread at mopar1973man claims the Dodge boxes 2003 and later are Ford....which is just kinda amusing because I've long wondered if a Ford box could be made to fit the 2nd Gens.

I wish I could have numerous boxes in front of me to find the best candidate between bolt pattern, spline counts, hydraulic line threads etc etc