Steering boxes and upgrades.

[philofab]

80-04 Boxes all have weak sector shafts. Apparently the 06-10 box from a F250/350 Superduty bolts to our frames and has a much larger sector shaft. 2011+ Superdutys have a TRW box with an even larger sector shaft then the 05-10 boxes, but I don't know if they fit. Who has done this swap? I have been calling around and I can source a 05-10 box for about $200. The pitman arm appears to be much beefier too.

The reason I bring this up is because I have damaged the box on Big Bertha and I don't know that I trust another stock box with 37" tires and my lack of driving skill.

[magic carpet XLT]

the guy from offroad magazine did the 05-10 swap on his bronco, forget his screen name on here. $200 is not bad if you are talking new box. i carry a spare sector shaft and have a lifetime warranty box from napa.

[philofab]

the guy from offroad magazine did the 05-10 swap on his bronco, forget his screen name on here. $200 is not bad if you are talking new box. i carry a spare sector shaft and have a lifetime warranty box from napa.

$200 is a junk yard box. The boxes have 70-140K on them.

As far as I know the Offroad project Bronco had someones "kit" installed. PSC maybe?

[PaulW]

The 99s and later used two vendors for the SD box. One was crap. Make sure you do not get the bad ones. Ford had to replace many of the bad ones before they dumped that vendor. Sorry I do not remember the vendor names. The Truck sites (powerstroke) should give you the details. No issues for the Bronco boxes on the late models, but for sure the SD box is stonger.
Call West Texas Off road and the owner will give you the scoop. All he does is rebuild and port for ram assist.
PaulW
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80-04 Boxes all have weak sector shafts. Apparently the 06-10 box from a F250/350 Superduty bolts to our frames and has a much larger sector shaft. 2011+ Superdutys have a TRW box with an even larger sector shaft then the 05-10 boxes, but I don't know if they fit. Who has done this swap? I have been calling around and I can source a 05-10 box for about $200. The pitman arm appears to be much beefier too.

The reason I bring this up is because I have damaged the box on Big Bertha and I don't know that I trust another stock box with 37" tires and my lack of driving skill.

[philofab]

I'm ok with a rebuild, I just don't care to put ram assist on my truck. I will call him, Thanks Paul.

[PaulW]

I'm ok with a rebuild, I just don't care to put ram assist on my truck. I will call him, Thanks Paul.

======
Yes, I had him rebuild the F150 PS box in my 72. Now its nice and tight. He replaced the bearings and seals. No ram for me either.
PaulW

[yikes]

I'm ok with a rebuild, I just don't care to put ram assist on my truck. I will call him, Thanks Paul.

Philo - Can you post "the scoop" when you find out? I'm interested in this as well.

[shockseals.com]

I'm ok with a rebuild, I just don't care to put ram assist on my truck. I will call him, Thanks Paul.

Philo - Can you post "the scoop" when you find out? I'm interested in this as well.

Ditto

[PaulW]

Here are some details:
Remove the arm and double wrap the box in two plastic bags and stuff it in a 5 gal paint bucket with a tight lid. I put a bunch of styrofoam in the bucket to keep from ratteling around. Then I filled out the form (I printed from online) to have them just rebuild and remove the play. Put the form in a plastic bag in the bucket and shipped it via UPS to W Tx. A week later I called and it was done. Verified the CC charge and he shipped it back.
Nice box now.
For you guys the choice of boxes is the main thing. EBs use the early F150 PS box, but like was discussed a SD box probably is a much better choice for a hard driving Bronco. And that opens up questions about the arm ,which I have no knowledge.
In the beginning I had a discussion with C Leduc and he said the stock Bronco box is subject to sector breakage. However, I cannot remenber any reports of such a failure. He made no mention of the anbulance rod, but made a pitch for his crossover steering mod and his price scared me away from doing that.
PaulW

[philofab]

Pitman arm is no concern to me as the crew will need a swing set of some sort to correct for the pivots. I plan on leaving the bronco alone for a while.

[magic carpet XLT]

just remembered i PM'd squarehead (offroad mag guy) a couple years ago about this on the other site. FWIW i've never seen a sector shaft break, even in the really bound up world of rockcrawling where a rock often pulls the steering the total opposite way of where you want to steer. i could swear somewhere along the line someone made a double shear bracket to capture the sector shaft, but that was probably on something else. the pitman on an 87-96 F350 is much beefier than the stock bronco one but retains the same spline (slightly more contact area tho), length and geometry. the boxes that came on broncos were used on rangers, explorers, F-series, E-series as well. if the superduty box fits, that would be a great upgrade for a lot of vehicles.


Re: SD steering box
Hi,

PSC apparently doesn't list the parts on their website, but it's a Super Duty box & pump, with a Derale aluminum fluid cooler, a new pulley and PSC's own reservior. PSC tells me it's a combination that that they sell to many prerunner owners.

If I remember correctly, the only tricky part was shaving down certain points on the box and/or pump to make them fit in the stock locations. Also, I needed to use a pitman arm with a larger spline hole, and after some trial and error I found the one that worked was from a 2005 Super Duty (if I remember it right).

It all seems to work well, there is less steering wheel play (but still some), and it's a bit easier to turn the wheel, although not a drastic departure from stock. I hope the setup does outlast the lifetime of a stock setup (it should).

Hope that helps!
Jeff

[philofab]

I talked to Curt Leduc today and he does a box that is a modified GM box that bolts on to our frames without mods. It has a larger sector, is rebuilt, and in the neighborhood of $400. Seems like a good deal.

[motoxscott]

I was planning on having Lee rebuild the stock box and set it up for ram assist here pretty quick. Now all this talk has me thinking about upgrading the box to something else haha. I'll talk to him next week and see what he recommends.

- Scott

[shockseals.com]

I talked to Curt Leduc today and he does a box that is a modified GM box that bolts on to our frames without mods. It has a larger sector, is rebuilt, and in the neighborhood of $400. Seems like a good deal.

Whats the sector spline? Any box that has a different spline than stock is a deal killer since my pitman is already fabricated.

[yikes]

FWIW i've never seen a sector shaft break...

I broke the sector shaft in Baja.

[johncharlesb]

I cracked the sector shaft on my 79 f150. The shaft still held, but was cracked 3/4 of the way through. It was on a mild prerunner after a weekend of moderate abuse. I was really suprised to see it.

[300]

FWIW i've never seen a sector shaft break...

I broke the sector shaft in Baja.

Have broken a sector shaft and changed a cracked one in Mexico as well. Pound them long enough and they give up.

[motoxscott]

Talked to Tommy Lee today shortly. I asked him about the superduty box and he said it really isnt that much stronger and the biggest problem is parts aren't available for him to rebuild them, etc. Other than what you see on the outside, when you actually open them up, the internal parts are about the same size. He said to stay with what I got.

I'm gonna send him all my stuff soon, so we'll see what he comes up with. We've always had great results from him, so I have no doubt it will work great.

- Scott

[David Kennedy]

Does anyone have the steering box off their truck that they can measure the mounting pattern from? I have an F-550 box (made by ZF, not Visteon) that might bolt up.

[philofab]

Does anyone have the steering box off their truck that they can measure the mounting pattern from? I have an F-550 box (made by ZF, not Visteon) that might bolt up.

I'll measure in a couple of hours. I have a pile of boxes.