Steering gear box replacement

1992 Cherokee 4WD, 4.0L. Anyone ever replace the sterring gear box? If so, how hard to do? Are there gaskets to replace? Need an alignment afterwards?

Had it at the shop for something else, but I mentioned the loose steering, so they checked it out and said the gear box needed to be replaced. Nothing dangerous, but would give that tighter feel. Had the steering dampner replaced, hoping it would help, but it really hasn't.

I don't know how close they are, but I just did a Steering Gear in an 88 Cherokee. Probably some of the better advice I could give you would be to shop the part, call around. I was hearing prices from $285 plus core and a three day wait to $265 and they'd have it for me tomorrow. I ended up getting it for $217 and they had it on a warehouse shelf five minutes from the store, I ended up getting price/availability quotes from 4 different places.
The other priceless morsel I can offer is don't try to pull that arm off the Steering Gear spline with a puller that's too small. I know a three jawed puller would have helped with stability, but I don't know if the arm would have allowed the third jaw to sit properly. (Plus you have other space restrictions to consider) I ended up doing it with a mid size two jaw Craftsman puller. I had to heat (and I mean *gently*) the cast ring of the arm to expand it that little bit to finally get it to seperate. Liberal quantities of WD-40 were also used. Watch that propane torch flame, I was paranoid as hell about starting a fire, their was PS fluid everywhere as I changed out the box because it leaked. Heating two mechanically connected units to manifest seperation is like a well choreographed dance. You want enough heat going onto the arm's ring to make it expand, but not so much it bleeds into the splined piece in the middle, if the two pieces heat up together, you're defeating the purpose.
All tolled, the job took about 7 hours, I'd have to say 2 of those hours could have been saved had I the right puller for the job.
The only belly ache I have when all is said and done is I have to pull the arm again as the steering wheel is turned to the left by a tooth or two when the truck runs straight. I have to re break the spline and see how many teeth to adjust it to get Steering Wheel centered when the truck runs straight.
As for alignment (my garage told me they'd have to but ultimately didn't do it) I never had it re aligned. Then again, didn't fool around with any of the adjustable parts of the linkage, just the ones that were in place by virtue of a spline or a press fit. (Remember, you've got a knuckle in that linkage that will have to come apart that's press fit)
Hope this little missive helped...

Stephen

Yes, very helpful! Did you replace yours for the same reason? If so, did it resolve the problem, i.e, was it worth it?

I've located one part at www.teamautoparts.com for about $189. That's the cheapest I've seen. But cost isn't my biggest concern. Like a lot of shade-tree mechanics, I just fear getting in over my head and then having to have the thing towed to the shop with my tail between my legs. And spending 5 hours with it sounds daunting...but not really a deterrent.

Thanks for the insights.

Carlson

I replaced the box because it was leaking and as a requirement for that new inspection sticker. "Worth It" wasn't so much a concern as "Had to"...
Good Luck!

Your encounter while trying to get the pieces apart by heating them, while probably necessary to break it up, reminded me of a science experiment I saw one time. The guy had two metal rods. One looked like a lollipop (tootsipop style) with a ball on the end. The other had a ring loop. When the rods were cool, the ball would fit through the loop, barely. When he heated up the loop, thereby causing the loop to expand, the inside diameter actually got smaller, so the ball end of the other one now wouldn't fit through the loop. Kind of weird, but it's true.

Carlson

I noticed steering loose on my 98 blazer and had couple mechanics tell me it was lower ball joints and idler arm but when I got under myself lower ball joints looked fine but I had to replace uppers and noticed the pitman arm has movement. with my finger on front of pitman where it attaches to steering linkage while someone turning steering back and forth can feel pitman arm hopping up and down. So I bought pitman arm but from all I've read thus far I have to take steering gear box off to get pitman off. I'm going to try to get it off without taking steering gear box off. I don't know how hard that is to do I'm not a mechanic but am mechanically inclined, so let me know how it goes if u take yours off and I will also even though may not be the same as your truck. I have also read pitman arm isn't a part that wears to point of needing to be replaced, any knowledge about this? Maybe its not pitman but bent relay instead? Had crazy trip on moutain got stuck on stump thinking maybe it was cause of this?