I swear to all that is holy that this truck will eventually be mechanically sound...even if it kills me!!

A few weeks ago, I realized why my steering floats. I tried adjusting the steering box again, only to realize that the 1/4 turn on the adjustment screw made it impossible to turn limit to limit...the box had to be replaced.

Last week, I ordered the part through Amazon...a Detroit rebuilt unit, without a core charge. $134 and 3 days later, it was at my door. It was a perfect match to the original...a Ford rebuilt unit. Man, that thing was heavy. I took it to the basement, and put a few coats of rust inhibitive paint, and waited for dry weather to finally show back up. I woke up yesterday, and saw that the forecast for the week was clear and sunny, with highs in the low 70's. Perfect weather for working on your car.

I gathered my tools and my son yesterday morning, and set out on the task at hand...cleaning a few thousand miles of road grime and grease from the steering box area and pitman arm. Getting the coupler off was a bit of a chore, as I couldn't get it to retract all the way. I pulled it past the scallop in the splines, and hoped that gravity would take over when I get everything unbolted. I then set out to remove the pump lines, which was rather easy. Next up was removing the pitman arm. That became an issue...it seems that my pitman arm is a heavier duty version that Ford used, and was larger than my puller. I remembered that I had to rent one when I had everything apart in Utah, so I sent my wife up to get it. It was perfect...and removed the arm from the splines. However, due to backing into the drive, the geometry of the front suspension was different than normal, and getting the arm to drop with the tie rods was not going to happen...so we had to remove the pitman arm from the tie rod, then use some colorful version of the King's English mixed with my Irish/Scottish heritage, and curse like a drunken sailor to get it to finally come off...that took over an hour.

The next step was removing the bolts that hold the box to the side of the frame. Luckily, I had started the day by spraying them with PB Blaster. Even more luck kicked in when I saw that there was absolutely no rust on the bolts...not even a little. A lot can be said about not washing grease and grime from parts of the undercarriage...who knew that it would stave off rust like that? With the removal of the bottom bolt, the box dropped like a boulder, completely removing itself from the coupler.

After a bit of work due to forgetting to remove the plugs, I finally had the shafts on the new box in the same position as the old one, meaning it should be an easy replacement without adjustment...and without the wheel being cocked at a strange angle. I had my son take over the lovely job of scraping years of grime from the mounting area, much to his dislike. A putty knife, multiple rags and some under his breath language so as not to make me mad later, and it was ready.

Or so I thought. I tested the bolts in the tapped holes on the new pump on the bench, and they threaded in nicely, but we all know that the bench is not the truck, and when under the truck, nothing works right. Apparently one tapped hole was just barely off...just enough that only two could thread in properly. After an hour of trying everything, to include changing bolts, I decided that I had to open up on hole slightly. Luckily, I have a bunch of reamers from my days as a toolmaker, and after stepping up with 3 different reamers, I had the hole large enough to accept the new steering box.

Did I mention just how heavy that thing was? As the day progressed, so did the weight of the steering box. By the time we finally had everything ready, I think the 37 pound steering box weighed in at 120. I'm laying under the truck, holding the steering box in place, arms shaking, sweat pouring from my brow, waiting on my son to start putting the bolts in, and my son is on the phone with his girlfriend. After much hollering and again with the twisted King's English/Scots-Irish cursing, he finally got the point, and began helping again. As luck would have it, he cross threaded one of the bolts. But, since I have all those keen tools still from my days working in a shop, I had the proper tap and die to repair the hole, as well as the bolt. However...I had to remove the box once again just to be able to run the tap in. By this time, my arms were jello, my spirit broken, and my confidence in getting the darned thing fixed in one day had faded.

So, once again, I hefted the steering box in place. My son was right there with the bolts, partly because I had taken his phone away and threatened to staple him to the wall on the side of the shed and use him for paintball practice if he made me hold it while he chatted on the phone or picked his nose, and partly because he was afraid of what my wife would do to him if he made me hold it any longer than needed to get the bolts in. At Last!!! The box was in place, and the coupler connected.

Remember that thing about Ford truck front suspension geometry changing when you back a truck up versus when it's going forward? Yeah...when we disconnected the pitman arm and released the pressure on the tie rods, both wheels cocked in slightly. Now, bear in mind that this work is being done on a gravel driveway, and gravel doesn't allow free movement of big truck tires with weight on them. Again with the language and some physical force from my son, we had the wheels in line, the pitman arm ball joint in line, and everything tightened down.

What should have taken just a few hours yesterday ended up becoming an all day project. What should have been simple, Murphy had a heyday with. But...it's on, it works, and all is good. I flushed the power steering pump before connecting the lines, ensuring only clean fluid would be run through the steering box...letting me keep the limited lifetime warranty that the part came with.

Remember how I said that there was no core exchange? I called up a mechanic friend of mine that knows a guy that will buy the old one off me for around $50 to be rebuilt and sold to someone else. So that $134 steering box will now run me around $85 or so. I may work out a deal with him to get a rebuilt water pump out of it, instead...since that's my next big job.

When my son and I tackle the water pump, I plan on swapping out the timing gears and chain, since I'm only one plate away from it at that point. It only makes sense to get it done then, rather than to have to tear it all down later...because Murphy is a pain in the ***

This morning, I'm sore as heck, moving slow, can't stand straight, and the coffee is barely working. I think it's time for a nap...

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles