Remanufactured steering box advice

J

JLPharr

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Original poster
Joined
Jul 9, 2019
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Location
Birmingham, AL
Hey guys! I joined the group around a year ago and have rebuilt my 02 TJ from scratch. This feat was accomplished mostly based on your comments and information provided in this forum. Thank you all for your wisdom!

So my old steering box was leaking. I took it off and grabbed a remanufactured one from O-Reilly's. I also changed out every bushing, tie rod end, etc I could find related to the steering system. I torqued these down to factory specs, greased them, drove it, re-torqued, etc.

I still had 25-35 degrees of slop in the steering wheel. I investigated this further and from watching it it had to be the steering box.

I started to take it back as it had a lifetime warranty but on second thought I turned the adjustment screw. It got a little better.

I turned it some more. It got even better. At this point I had made probably 180 degrees of rotation and still had slack in my steering.

So last night I turned it another full rotation, 360 degrees. The slack was gone. I backed off the adjustment until I could feel the lightest bit of a dead spot in the steering then cranked down the jam nut.

Does anyone have any opinions on whether this is safe? Should I pull the steering box and go get another? Or should I wing it?
 
I would have it swapped. The steering box should have only a minimal amount of play from the factory, and there had to be a very specific amount of backsplash in the gear.

If the backlash is too large, you get a lot of play and risk chipping or damaging the gears. If the backlash is too small, you get significantly increased wear which can lead to box failure in a short period of time.

There is a very specific method to adjusting the backlash, and of not done correctly, it will cause damage to the internals.
 
Realistically the back lash should have been set when the steering box was Remanufactured.
The company that Remanufactured the box could use the fact that you adjusted the backlash to their benefit to say you caused the problem.
Since the steering box was newly purchased and still under warranty; with slop like that I would have removed and returned the box.
 
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Removing and returning is still an option. I checked with the parts place as I was going to return it anyway and they ok'd me to try to tighten it a bit to see if it corrected the issue..

Is there a guide to setting them up correctly?
 
Steel City 06 said:
I would have it swapped. The steering box should have only a minimal amount of play from the factory, and there had to be a very specific amount of backsplash in the gear.

If the backlash is too large, you get a lot of play and risk chipping or damaging the gears. If the backlash is too small, you get significantly increased wear which can lead to box failure in a short period of time.

There is a very specific method to adjusting the backlash, and of not done correctly, it will cause damage to the internals.
Click to expand...
For future reference, the issue is lack of good cores. The piston bores at either end of the steering gear are not worn very much due to the steering gear spending most of its time on center. If you set the lash for on center, then as the piston moves into the bore, it gets too tight and you lose return to center. Set it so you have return to center and it is too loose on center.

It is about the same as trying to set back lash on a gear set in an axle with a carrier that wobbles. Get it good in one spot, it is going to be too loose or too tight in another. Also why we don't do reman TJ steering gears. Not many good cores no matter who does the rebuild.
 
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Thank you for the info Mr Blaine. I will look at purchasing a new steering box but may drive around on this one for a bit due to cost.
 
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