Who has tried a steering box rebuild kit?
 

My steering box is now to the point where it is starting to leave a drip every night on the garage floor.

Has anyone had success with a "rebuild" kit. My steering is vague, but I'd say acceptable, and from what I have been able to gather doing searches it's a big crap shoot on a rebuilt steering box (you might get one back that is already worn out and is just resealed and repainted).

Has anyone done a rebuild kit (reseal?) themselves with success? Thoughts?

W126 - 84' 300SD now at about 195K miles

If you want new steering box go here I heard lot of good thing about them.

That said my steering was leaking bad and I switched out the fluid with the stop leak type of power steering fluid and leaking has finally stop after about 3000 miles of use. :D

The kit should work well if you just want to seal the box up.

try adjusting the play out of it properly. If you can do that, get the rebuild kit and reseal it. If you can't adjust out enough play, you might want to get a new box.

factory service manual
 

Looking at the Chassis book #2 for 126 manual the process of rebuilding looks intimidating (lots of special tools).

I guess I should say my goal is to "reseal" vs "rebuild" so I'm wondering if it is as bad as it looks.

hmmmm

bodyart27,

Let us know how the reseal goes. I just got the steering box out of my 300D and like you, am wary about getting a "rebuilt" unit. :mad:
The steering geometry is supposed to be low on a 115 so the stresses aren't that bad. I think I will just reseal, adjust the play and go.

I bought the kit for my '95 S350 and just replaced the seals on the bottom that were leaking. I did not even remove the box from the car, just took the lower arm off and the bottom cap and replaced what I could get to from there and everything is dry and not leaking anymore. Most of the time it is the bottom seal around the shaft.

I checked them out and the want $325 plus a $150 core charge for a 300D but they inlcude shipping in the price and only charge $12 to send them back the core. I think I may need a new box in my 230 as I can't seem to get all the play out of the steering after adjusting it. Steering only feels tighter now but still has the same amount of play.

It sounds like a worn steering box symptom. This is common in hi mileage MBs.
I have had to replace two in my W123's, one was really loose when I bought the car in 1990 so I went to a wrecking yard that happened to keep records of the mileage shown on specific items (from the car odometer before they scrapped the car) Luckily they had a low mileage unit, it fixed the problem cheap.
The next time I needed a steering box for my '85 300TD I couldn't find any units that felt tight. Worse yet, none of the wrecking yards showed mileage figures so I decided to send my box for rebuild. I have been very happy with it. You might try Meridian Auto Parts near San Diego tel 888-275-2525
http://www.meridianautoparts.com