Steering Gears

[delsolkm14]

Not sure where to put this, I realized the last thread I made should have went in the Engine section, but couldn't move it once I made it.

My steering gear is leaking real bad. My friend has a 84 or 86 GMC 2WD he is parting out and said I could take what I want off it. The steering gear looks good on it. I looked them up on LMC truck and see that the 2wd and 4wd are different, and different for 77-79 and 80-87. What is the difference between them? Would it be better to buy the $30 rebuild kit from Rock Auto and pull mine and rebuild it? Is it hard to rebuild one?

Thanks,

DTB

 

[crazy4offroad]

The pitman arms between 2wd and 4wd mount differently, and point in different directions. 4wd push/pulls the draglink front to rear and the 2wd from left to right. I think there is a difference in the power steering lines as well, older models are standard and newer are metric. If the steering box is still tight, just leaks the seals aren't hard to put in. There's also a couple o-rings that need to be installed but no biggie.

 

[delsolkm14]

Ok thanks, just saved me an hour or so of taking that one out of the truck.

 

[crazy4offroad]

If you ever went to crossover steering down the road you'll have to have a 2wd steering box, but that's only if you plan on going 1-ton/big lift/big tires thatyou would need it.

 

[Irishman999]

Not sure where to put this, I realized the last thread I made should have went in the Engine section, but couldn't move it once I made it.

My steering gear is leaking real bad. My friend has a 84 or 86 GMC 2WD he is parting out and said I could take what I want off it. The steering gear looks good on it. I looked them up on LMC truck and see that the 2wd and 4wd are different, and different for 77-79 and 80-87. What is the difference between them? Would it be better to buy the $30 rebuild kit from Rock Auto and pull mine and rebuild it? Is it hard to rebuild one?

Thanks,

DTB

I do not suggest taking one apart unless you can afford to buy a new one and have a ton of patients. After having mine apart all the seals inside looked good and really did not even need replaced. There is a worm shaft inside that is suspended in the center of another part filled with a butt load of ball bearings. The trick is getting all the ball bearings back into the worm shaft thing without having one pop out and fall in the case. I battled mine for days until I was confident no bearings popped out, the bench test went well with no binding. I put it in the truck and it immediately turned to the right on its own and the steering wheel locked.

If its just leaking its most likely the pinion seal and that is a 10 dollar fix:

Take loose these 4 bolts and slide the pinion shaft out

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with the shaft out there is two small rubber seals:

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Install the new ones and BAM no more leak. You could probably do it with the steering box in the truck without removing the pinion shaft but you have to find something that fits around the shaft to drive the seals in. I used a seal driver with the shaft out after ruining the first set of seals.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[delsolkm14]

If you ever went to crossover steering down the road you'll have to have a 2wd steering box, but that's only if you plan on going 1-ton/big lift/big tires thatyou would need it.

I currently have a 6" lift and 39.5" Super Swampers on it, but still 1/2 ton.

Hmm... might take it out to throw on the shelf since it is free.

 

[delsolkm14]

Thanks for the heads up.

I will buy a pinon seal kit and try that out. see if it works. There isn't any play in the steering wheel, so i think it's still good.

DTB

I do not suggest taking one apart unless you can afford to buy a new one and have a ton of patients. After having mine apart all the seals inside looked good and really did not even need replaced. There is a worm shaft inside that is suspended in the center of another part filled with a butt load of ball bearings. The trick is getting all the ball bearings back into the worm shaft thing without having one pop out and fall in the case. I battled mine for days until I was confident no bearings popped out, the bench test went well with no binding. I put it in the truck and it immediately turned to the right on its own and the steering wheel locked.

If its just leaking its most likely the pinion seal and that is a 10 dollar fix:

Take loose these 4 bolts and slide the pinion shaft out

You must be registered for see images attach

with the shaft out there is two small rubber seals:

You must be registered for see images attach

Install the new ones and BAM no more leak. You could probably do it with the steering box in the truck without removing the pinion shaft but you have to find something that fits around the shaft to drive the seals in. I used a seal driver with the shaft out after ruining the first set of seals.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Irishman999]

Glad I could save you money and frustration dude!

I started with that 30 dollar seal kit, ruined the two pinion seals so I spent another 10 bucks for new ones. The new gear box was 160 bucks, that brings the grand total to 200 bucks to fix a leak caused by 2 10 dollar seals.

Talk about frustrating and a waste of time.

 

[delsolkm14]

Where can you find just the pinion seal? Been looking online and only finding whole rack and pinion seal sets for $30-$40.

 

[smurph20]

I replaced the seals in my Jeep steering box and got the seal kits form Advance Auto. They were made by Pioneer

 

[RetroC10Sport]

I replaced the seals in my Jeep steering box and got the seal kits form Advance Auto. They were made by Pioneer

Many Jeeps used the same Saginaw steering box as our squares.

 

[delsolkm14]

Thanks.

Will hit up the parts store tomorrow.

 

[Irishman999]

Yeah, my second set came from Vatozone over the counter.

 

[smurph20]

ONc i got the pitman arm off i used a small pick to pull the old ones out and then used a peice of PVC pipe to tap the new ones back in along with some powersteering fluid to lube it up.

 

[bucket]

So, let's see if I'm getting this. There is an outer seal, as well as another pair of seals under the snap ring and washer? Three seals total?