Power Steering - Do it yourself. Need helpful advise plz & Ty

hi im an o/o myself I don't know about doing the power steering box yourself its a big job . but I replaced my whole exaust system on my 2001 freightliner classic myself in my drive way just have to take the whole system off first then I took it to a1 truck parts in alma mi. and they gave me everything I needed from pipes to hangers to clamps and muffelars I did it in about 4 hours from taking off and replaceing everything not to hard of a job where do you live ? always somebody in most towns to work on trucks, hope this helps

 

Steering box's are not hard to replace but you will want someone to help cause they are heavy, unbolt and bolt together, nothing to major, replace filter when you do it and put new fluid in and turn wheel's , will bleed itself out.

 

Pretty easy job, no bleeding required. You do however need to make sure that the box is "centered" when you put the arm on or you. Say for example you have a 6 turn box, you turn the input [steering shaft side] all the way to lock in one direction go to lock the opposite way then count back half of the turns, make sure your wheels are straight and install the arm. Button up your install, put the lines on and fill the tank. Take truck for alignment if needed and drive your butt off to pay for the parts...

 

Partner the putting it back together would be the biggest thing, Take pictures and mark things as to where they should go. I would measure your tires position and then put something on the steering wheel to keep it where it is when the wheels are sitting perfectly straight, dropping the knuckle is probably the toughest part, a gear puller will do just fine, Just be careful when putting the next box in, make sure all holes line up and then the turns as mentioned above are strictly adhered to! Not a tough job, a little heavy when putting the box to the frame! a floor jack can help with dunnage or boards to stabilize! just double check yourself on everything to do with it! Good Luck, let us know when you get it done, we may need an experts advice on the next one you help us with!

 

It's a easy job. Go for it.

 

Air tools help. Prior to disassembly center the steering wheel. Take special note where the pitman arm is pointing. Do all your disassembly including removing the Pitman arm with the gear box still intact. Advance Auto Parts has a tool loaner program with a nice ball joint separator set for removing the drag link and they even have a pitman arm puller if you need one. They should work on a big truck.

Like they said on re-assembly make sure the gear box is centered. Do that on the steering rod side as it has a flat spot for a reference. If you didn't move the steering wheel it's hard to mess up. You either got it right or are a whole turn out as for the flat spot on the shaft. Then if your front tires wasn't disturbed it will go back together easily. When you get done there might be some air trapped. Just turn the wheel back and forth and it will come out. Double check your steering wheel alignment with your tire alignment. You can easily see it eyeballing the tire line to the back drive tires if you are a notch off.

 

The pittman is hardest part to get off the shaft of old box. Buy a 50 dollar Pittman arm puller or rent one. Key part of job is pitman arm times to steering box, it its out it will turn farther one way than the other. After you get the big allen bolt out that holds arm to box clean surface off with sos pad. You will see the timing marks, new box will have a mark already. Align mark on arm to new box just like it looks on old box. Also check that bolt for several days after, if you don't get arm seated the bolt will tighten up. After running it though the arm will unbind I guess is the word and bolt will be loose causing slack. Just retighten it. Don't let is scrare you its not a bad job. The arm is the only attention part, just be sure to time it and it is seated and you won't have trouble.

 

It will weigh a 100 pd I think. Big thing is holding it in position and reachin around behind frame to start bolts. I can usually do it in 3 hours, but it can take all day when @#$% happens lol. I usually get a reman from truck pro or their competitor about 700.00 exchange in AR. Never been in one but heard bad horror stories of those who have lol. Usually if you have some one to hold it or start bolts while you do it not bad.