Anyone know if the 1994-2001 steering box's are compatible with each other? Looking to put a 97 in my 96.

 

Same same.

 

Are you sure you steering box is bad? Have you checked the play in your steering column yet? Allot of times it is is not the box.

 

Taneum,
I read this and assumed you knew your steering box was bad but kandgo raises a good point. I just posted in the 24V drivetrain section about what I have done to my steering system on my truck. When I bought it a year ago, I could barely keep it between the lines on the hwy. I was about to buy a new steering box when the folks on this site told me to slow down a little bit, there are things to do before condemning your steering box. I bought a DSS Steering Brace (lots on here about them) and then this week in installed a new trac bar with adjustable ball joint and upgraded urethane bushing. Holy Cow!!! The steering is as tight as most cars now. If I had put a new steering box in without the other two fixes I wouldn't have solved the problem and the play in the system would have just pounded the daylights out of the bearings in my new steering box too.

 

I did buy a red head steering box without checking the rest of the steering components. I figured all the bad things I hear about the stock boxes that I might as well upgrade since I plan on keeping the truck for some time. I checked my ball joints and they are tight. What other ways can you check to find what causes the loose steering?

 

Did your redhead box help a bit??? Haven't put mine in yet,but I'm rebuilding the complete steering to a cross over..How is the rest of the steering?? Trackbar,tire rods,etc??

One thing I installed was the colume bushing,that really helped in kick back in the steering over bumps..

 

Do yourself a favor, protect the bearing in that nice new Redhead steering box with a steering stabilizer. The link below will take you to the place I bought mine.
http://www.solidsteel.biz/
There may well be companies who support this site who sell the same thing. It cost me about $200, shipped to me in less than 48 hrs and was installed in 2 hours. Once you install it you will understand why it is such amazing protection for your steering box.

The best way to look for play in steering system is to start truck, lie on ground in front looking at steering components and have a helper turn the steering back and forth, left to right, lock to lock. You should see what ball joints, bushings etc are sloppy. Not everyone agrees it is the right thing to do but I replaced my trac bar bushing with urethane ones from the company linked to above. Some say you should stay with stock rubber bushings as the urethane ones are too hard and merely transfer the shock to other components in the steering system. That is a personal choice for you to make, just like what kind of oil you use.

 

I have already installed a steering Stabilizer a while back. It helped my steering some but not too much. I have not installed my new box yet.

 

Heard the redhead box is really good..Blow the second Napa box on mine and now it wanders bad...Got a bad case of death wobble 3 weeks ago....Found one tie rod with slight play,plus another blown box..

 

I read all good things about Redhead steering boxes. Since they are about an hour away up north I decided to go get one. I found a Ram 2500 box locally for $25.00 (with the pinion arm and the steering shaft still attached). I gave them the used box to avoid a core charge and having to drive back up to Seattle with my core once I replace it.

 

I'm going to try and get my redhead box in today...Going to do that first before changing it over to the different steering linkage..

 

Got the box in...Haven't test drove yet..Unless the redhead box will loosen up a bit,which I don't think will happen...I really noticed the side to side play on the pitman shaft on the old box compared to zero side to side play on the redhead..

 

please post results of Redhead once you have it installed and also what other equipment you added. A lot of threads are simply people parroting what they heard with no actual facts or good information..

 

Had to pick up a bearing for my DSS...Maybe to much dealth wobble may have killed the bearing..

I will post the results...Once I get the DSS bearing in ,I will test drive on the Y style steering.

I will then convert it to the T-style..

Right now all I have on my front is DSS, Colume bushing and the 3rd gen upgrade track bar..Front U-joints are still ok...

 

The biggest issue with the steering components on these rigs is that everything is heavy up front so when something starts to get "out of spec" everything else gets overloaded and starts to take up the slack, creating more slack.

Ball joints, trac bar, tie rod ends, steering box, pitman arm, shocks, bearings, steering shaft bearings, can all go bad leading to slop. The only thing with really any adjustment is the steering box, but you shouldn't adjust it over 1/8th inch increment at a time or you can overtighten it and ruin it.

Redhead boxes have a good reputation but it will trash itself too if your other components are bad.