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What did you do today?

Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
I thought this would be a nice thread to write the little things we’ve done that may not justify their own threads. Seeing as the other mass thread is really a build thread and little changes don’t really equate to builds.

First I changed my air filter today, it was well overdue, when I dropped the old one on the ground it covered the ground in dirt and dust! Didn’t realize it had gotten that bad.
Be sure when installing that you get the filter fully engaged there are two tabs at the bottom of the box that you have to push the filter in until it is fully engaged behind those tabs. I suggest applying a very light coat of 100% silicon to the filter seal around the bottom two rounds - this will help the filter engage into place without significant frustration.

Second I changed my steering stabilizer today with a new OE stabilizer. I used a pitman separator, any separator should work but I would suggest the shorter of the ones. I found the best way to separate the stabilizer from the link bar was to push the pitman separator between the sway bar and the frame, took probably 5 minutes to find the best position for the pickle fork and do a little beating and it was off. Much easier than expected. The hardest part was reengaging the frame end of the stabilizer back into the mount - have a nice deep gash in my knuckle from that.
Honestly I didn’t have high expectations for this change as the new one only felt modestly tighter than my 172k mile old stabilizer - I was wrong it’s definitely much smoother and has significantly less bump steer - good change.

Finally, I changed out my sway bar end links, they’re only about 40-50k miles old but I believe my wreck caused one of them to split. Easy change and I can definitely feel a difference which is surprising seeing as the old ones really weren’t that old. Don’t go by torque specs on these as they are ridiculously high and you will end up splitting the rubber, get them good and tight until you feel good about them.

Also bought a new pitman arm for when I replace my steering box. Unfortunately I have insurance on 4 vehicles coming up this month, and taxes on the two most expensive this month as well - so I’m holding off on the box for a little longer. Frankly it still feels good, if it weren’t for the popping noise I wouldn’t change it.
 
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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Cleaned off my 3 high mount center marker light seal bases and installed a fresh set of seals, this is the second aftermarket seal set I’ve put on, I noticed when searching for my leak a month back that the replaced seals had shrunk and were leaking like the OEM had. The lights were loose and if you pushed one light to the rear you could see the opening for the wires.

New seals are tight and appear water proof.
 
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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Found some bad rust on one rock rail, truck has typical NC light surface rust, but it’s 99% surface rust, noticed one end of one of my rock rail had a pretty bad spot.

Will need to get these sandblasted and re-powder coated.

0e5f1fcfab99f32e9b16f31cb502f6ee.jpg


I had this side rock rail off late last year, not sure how I didn’t notice at that time.
 

TonkaTank93

Active Member
Messages
30
Location
VA, USA
Cleaned off my 3 high mount center marker light seal bases and installed a fresh set of seals, this is the second aftermarket seal set I’ve put on, I noticed when searching for my leak a month back that the replaced seals had shrunk and were leaking like the OEM had. The lights were loose and if you pushed one light to the rear you could see the opening for the wires.

New seals are tight and appear water proof.
Where did you get the seals from? I think mine might be leaking too.
 

Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
You can buy just the 6 center lights as well.

Frankly there’s no sense in replacing the foam on the outside corner lights as the water is channeled under them by design to start with.

If your leaking from the corners the most likely culprit (assuming the water from the center lights isn’t running to the sides as it will) would be the rubber plug in the corner being shrunk and needs to be RTV’d or the less likely but more intensive possibility that your body seam is leaking.
 

Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Today I finally discovered what is ultimately clunking in my front end. I have a slight but noticeable clunk when moving the wheel side to side that I had previously diagnosed to the steering box.

However I still wasn’t convinced despite all the evidence since my steering from the intermediate shaft to the pitman arm has visually zero play, the steering box out put had no side to side, the input has no side to side.

I felt confident in my diagnoses, but it still plagued me that I couldn’t definitively find the exact location of the clunk other than say it was internal.

With my doubts on me I broke out the 3-1/2’ breaker bar and started putting pressure on various components, mainly being the pitman. After a couple repositions I noticed that the output shaft on my steering box was moving in and out of the box NOT side to side, which is 95% of what you find on the interwebs.

With this new information I did some research in building boxes and found this output shaft is called either a “sector shaft” or a “pitman shaft”, it’s up and down play are directly related to the shaft adjustment screw on top of the box.

Assuming my sector shaft isn’t broken in two pieces, I’m going to start adjusting this screw and see if it’s in contact with the sector shaft or if the adjustment is just way off.

I’ll let everyone know if this works, now that I know what to research I have found a couple others online with similar issues and the adjustment screws corrected the out of spec sector play and resulting clunk.

I would hate to replace this box if it wasn’t failing because as I mentioned it’s still tight side to side and has been good. There is some play at highway speeds, but no play when parked, and from my research a loose sector shaft is definitely a possible culprit.


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High Five H2

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,627
Location
West Texas
I have a 2.5 to 3 amp draw when my H2 is off that I'm trying to diagnose. I have an aftermarket alarm that I THINK is the issue, but the PO also had a lot of aftermarket electric accessories. It was a S&R truck so he had police lights, a winch, CB radio, etc. I unplugged the radio and all the fuses but nothing stopped the draw. Not permanently, at least. Sometimes it would stop and then start again. I read that the BCM or something would draw some electricity for a 3-4 hours after it was shut off for some reason, so maybe it's normal.

The reason I started looking at it was if I let it sit for a week it would either be dead or hard to start. Eventually I jumped it so many times the battery was totally dead (or was it already weak?) and I replaced it with one of those optima yellow top deep cycle batteries. So I don't know if it was dying because the old battery was weak or if I just masked the problem with the new battery. Or maybe it's normal. Who knows.
 

Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
First thing I always tell everyone is to make sure the onstar fuse is pulled, they’re known to cause a draw.

All else fails, you can bandaid the issue by buying a battery saver. This is a system that will cut off the battery from the truck if it detects that the battery is getting low. If such an occurrence happens the driver can reengage the battery to the vehicle system by depressing the brake which will reelectrify the vehicle so that it can be cranked.


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colo4x4rado

Member
Messages
18
Location
Michigan
Today I finally discovered what is ultimately clunking in my front end. I have a slight but noticeable clunk when moving the wheel side to side that I had previously diagnosed to the steering box.

However I still wasn’t convinced despite all the evidence since my steering from the intermediate shaft to the pitman arm has visually zero play, the steering box out put had no side to side, the input has no side to side.

I felt confident in my diagnoses, but it still plagued me that I couldn’t definitively find the exact location of the clunk other than say it was internal.

With my doubts on me I broke out the 3-1/2’ breaker bar and started putting pressure on various components, mainly being the pitman. After a couple repositions I noticed that the output shaft on my steering box was moving in and out of the box NOT side to side, which is 95% of what you find on the interwebs.

With this new information I did some research in building boxes and found this output shaft is called either a “sector shaft” or a “pitman shaft”, it’s up and down play are directly related to the shaft adjustment screw on top of the box.

Assuming my sector shaft isn’t broken in two pieces, I’m going to start adjusting this screw and see if it’s in contact with the sector shaft or if the adjustment is just way off.

I’ll let everyone know if this works, now that I know what to research I have found a couple others online with similar issues and the adjustment screws corrected the out of spec sector play and resulting clunk.

I would hate to replace this box if it wasn’t failing because as I mentioned it’s still tight side to side and has been good. There is some play at highway speeds, but no play when parked, and from my research a loose sector shaft is definitely a possible culprit.


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Make very small adjustments to the packing screw. I would start off with 1/8" turns and then check the steering. If you over tighten the packing screw the sector shaft can bind and you will have no control.
 

Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Make very small adjustments to the packing screw. I would start off with 1/8" turns and then check the steering. If you over tighten the packing screw the sector shaft can bind and you will have no control.

Do you know if the screw should spin freely in or should there be back pressure from the sector shaft on the packing screw?

This is not a common issue however from looking at parts breakdowns of steering boxes I don’t see any other possible way that would allow the sector shaft to move vertical in the box.



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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Well that was a waste of time, I tightened up the adjustment screw until the steering started getting tight, and backed off a quarter turn as you are, hoping I would have no more axial play in the sector shaft.... nada, sector shaft still shifts up with a clunk with the breaker bar.

I’m going to go ahead and order a new box - there’s clearly an internal issue that I am incapable of solving.

I’m also going to make some calls tomorrow to get some thoughts


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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Not sure what happened to my last post so I’ll repost; but after much heartache I’ve gone ahead and bought a redhead unit. Clearly the steering box shouldn’t be clunking and this seems to be an internal failure beyond my understanding. $651 is a lot of money after just doing gears, I’ll get $225 back for core but still. I hope this box lives up to its reputation.
 

MilamJR

Well-Known Member
Messages
805
Location
Alabama
Not sure what happened to my last post so I’ll repost; but after much heartache I’ve gone ahead and bought a redhead unit. Clearly the steering box shouldn’t be clunking and this seems to be an internal failure beyond my understanding. $651 is a lot of money after just doing gears, I’ll get $225 back for core but still. I hope this box lives up to its reputation.

Looking forward to seeing how you like it.


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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Honestly I’m kind of concerned, there is really no better unit on the market than redhead, from what I see the regular rebuilt steering boxes on the market are universally junk straight out of the box. There are no available new units at all.

There’s quite a few incidences of redheads coming out of the box too tight, or leaking within the first year, hell I’ve seen some people say theirs have become loose.

You have good and bad reviews, I hate the thought that this may not be a permanent solution and there’s no where else to go for better.
 

Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Well I received my steer box Friday, very quick shipping. Started working on installing it today, taking out the old one was a pain - I mean it’s probably the simplest vehicle this side of a Jeep to change out but it’s still a pain.

I found that pumping the brakes essentially creates a suction on the entire system as it started draining the reservoir tank through the brake system and right out the open hose. Happy that went as easy as it did even if it took 20 minutes to completely drain. I found that the hydraulic hose fitting on the steer box closest to the frame has a fitting that is most likely seized as I realized when turning it out that the short metal pipe was spinning on the hose. Kinda worried that may be a potential leak point down the road but I’ll wait and see. May have to remove the entire hose at some point and get a new one made. I almost bought all new hoses to start with but got lazy.

Installed new redhead box and new Moog pitman onto the frame, have not torqued anything to spec yet. Pitman leaves a lot of the gearbox shaft teeth showing, I mean a lot, but the nut is tight and the lock washer is pushed down so I’m just gonna keep an eye out.

Have not yet hooked up hydraulic lines, or steer shaft probably won’t get to that until Thursday.

New steering box came with needed o-rings to replace old o rings on fittings. Bought two quarts of power steering fluid from dealership.


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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Not off to a good start, steering is very tight and I completely lose power steering at low rpm.

Not going to point any fingers at this point as it’s possible I could be air locked due to my own clumsiness, will just have to make some calls tomorrow.


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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Since I’m losing both brakes and steering I’ve been directed to replace my pump, not the answer I want, but if I’m going to be honest it’s hardly a surprising answer.




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MilamJR

Well-Known Member
Messages
805
Location
Alabama
Since I’m losing both brakes and steering I’ve been directed to replace my pump, not the answer I want, but if I’m going to be honest it’s hardly a surprising answer.




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Hate when you start a repair and the cost and time commitment double.


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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Hate when you start a repair and the cost and time commitment double.


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I have to say this is very frustrating, it’s always a bad day when you do a repair/upgrade and your excited for the results - and then nothing.

I’m somewhat torn here, the pump works for about a mile and then I have no power steering/power brakes without revving up the engine. Why did this suddenly happen at the same time I replaced the gear box?

I don’t have a hard time believing my pump needs to be replaced but on the other hand the new steering box is extremely tight, too tight in my opinion. I have even removed my steering stabilizer for confirmation.

The other possibility which redhead mentioned was that the check valve on the bottom end pressure hose got clogged up when draining system - I think this is a real possibility - but I think it’s a waste of time to crack that system knowing that while very possible, statistically speaking there’s only a small chance it actually is my problem and will correct my issue.

I’m about to head out to autozone and buy a new ac Delco steering pump and bite the bullet. Frankly the biggest issue I’m worried about with that fiasco is if the fan will have to come off to remove the steering pump pulley.

More money, more headaches, I joke not when I say I have replaced or rebuilt about 75% of the mechanical parts of this truck. I seriously think sometimes about buying a V8 4Runner and never looking back.


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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Well lo and behold, I tried calling tech support again and explained other symptoms, they requested an audio video but I haven’t heard their response yet.

As usual the answer to automotive problems are never as simple as they seem. I kept testing the truck and eventually it stopped binding and losing brakes. I don’t think it has been the pump at all, I think the steering gear was set too tight and as the box heated up and the parts expanded it started to bind and with that brought the entire system down. Perhaps the fluid boiled?

I just came back from a several mile drive, other than the steering being very tight (again almost too tight) I never lost steering or brakes, I think the gear box is breaking in and wearing off the new.

Or perhaps a clog in the steering valve was dislodged?

Either way not quite sure what my move is now. If the box is too tight then shouldn’t it be backed off? If I replace the pump that hasn’t failed why should I believe I’ll be any better off?

If I had lost brakes and steering in the mountains of NC I was at last weekend I could easily have went off the side of one of the winding roads.

I guess I will wait and see.

Btw aside from the tightness, and with the steering stabilizer removed - the steering is crisp and precise. I can’t say anything bad about that. I think my girlfriend may have words about the resistance in turning however - even with the power steering clearly working.


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Iwillnc

Well-Known Member
Messages
236
Location
NC
Not really sure what to make of this, just drove 60-80 miles through lots of FLAT curves, and no issues with anything.

Everything works, I’m not running a steering stabilizer at all and you can’t even tell it’s missing.

Not sure if I should take back the pump or just hold on to it for a little while.

Steering is still much tighter than stock but nothing is binding. I will say changing (or partly changing) the power steering fluid had a good change in my braking feel, brakes feel better than before.


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