Out and on the bench. How hard should it be to turn the input shaft?

Junk Yard sector, hopefully on it's way to Chip at Power Steering Services for rebuild.

 

with the coupler on for a little leverage, it should turn by hand easily. Like turning a well lubed door ****. Not much effort at all.

I do not have a torque rating handy

 

What would make it stiff? Oil is plentiful and not wet.

 

Someone might have turned the back lash preload screw down. That would cause hard to turn condition. Then you also have the input shaft preload where the front seal is. That turned in to far from a input seal replacement could do it.

 

Would either mis-addjustment cause internal damage? I'm trying to determine if it's rebuildable before I pay freight to send it to Chip.

 

The back lash preload could cause damage if turned down to much. That is the allen head adjustment on the top plate of the box.

 

Input shaft isn't binding. Backlash adjustment makes no difference. No noise other than hydraulic sucking sounds. Seems smooth other than the bind.

I wonder if the hydraulics are stuck? Didn't seem to get much better when I got the oil pumped out of it. Doesn't seem to be different through the stroke. If the gear was worn, it'd loosen up in the middle.

'Nuther 20 minutes I can call Chip and pick his brain. I can ship business to business, so maybe I'll just send it to him to see if it's rebuildable.

At this point, it's looking like I'll have to either put in an auto store rebuilt, or just change out the input seal myself for now. I don't think it's all that big of a deal removing and installing the gear box itself. Decent wrenches, ie 18mm tubing wrench, is the key. I hate this STORM crap.

 

I talked to chip, then went at it again. The pitman shaft adjustment was so tight that I had to rock the input shaft to get it to move. Once adjusted, I can turn the input shaft easily, with a slight increase in torque in the center, as it should be. Unfortunately, there is also a slight increase in torque near one end of travel, which shouldn't be there. I also feel a slight roughness when turning the shaft.

Chip said that folks that have no clue often tighten this adjustment up in the truck because they can feel a slight free play in the pitman. It often causes the gear to crack, or the captive ***** to spall. He said the adjustment should never be attempted in the truck.

I think this one is a bone.

I also think I found the tightness in the steering on my back up truck. I'll have to pull the pitman arm and check it out soon.

Thanks all for the help.

 

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< I C&P this from another post. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Why not just throw the dodge steering box in the scrape pile.
Get chevy box mount that on the dodge then get the the steering shafts out of a 3rd gen chevy C/K and a jeep XJ

All the info you need is in these two posts.


https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...x-t299031.html

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...2-t301769.html

You do not have to do the RRSG swap to do this. this will work on your 2wd 4wd and C.O. steering systems


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>


GM Saginaw builds the Steering Gears
GM vehicles dont were out like the cheaply made gears dodge gets.

reason why dodge wont spend the money for the good parts.