if i am not mistaken, the 2 wheel and 4 wheel trucks use different boxes.

 

OK now that we got that all cleared up what is it going to take to remove the old box and put in a new one?

 

some wrenches

we fixed mine in the middle of a corn field in 30mph winds at negative temps. it was not fun to say the least bit. the box itself was fine, and yours probably is as well. we basically just changed out the sector shaft and a seal or two iirc. pretty simple and straight forward. all we had was a hammer, a pickle fork and a few wrenches. i'll go check in the garage and see if i have the broken parts still or not. think i do.

 

How many acres?



Daaaaaamn, your front end is wiiiiiiiiide! Looks like crap IMO but whatever floats your failboat.


Hydro assist will take some of the load off the sector shaft and help it last a little longer. Not sure if thats the answer you were looking for though.

Since you need a new box (well at minimum a new shaft and rebuild kit) you should give these guys a try for a rebuild and add hydro assist while they're at it if you arent confident in doing it yourself.

hydrosteering

 

Hi, i just wonder how much noise the front tires would make if you were zinging along at 70mph and the tires towed out and how fast it would have stopped.

 

I would rep you for that one but I already gave you points today!

 

the tires would still be straight. the drag link(or whatever it is called) would still be holding them parallel to each other on an f350. the rod that comes from the pitman arm connects to the straight rod that keeps the tires (knuckles) hooked together.

 

First of all, you have no idea where my username comes from. I've been using the same username for most stuff online since high school when I did "tech" theatre aka backstage work, I was real good at and at some point a couple of my friends thought I was a god at backstage stuff. I've never claimed to be a god at truck stuff. I'm sorry if I've mislead you there.

Second, I didn't mean to call you dumb, I think I misread your post and thought you were confused at the f-superduty f-450 thing, whatever, my bad.

RockAuto lists the same steering box for F-series, E-series and Rangers for many years. See here, click on "detailed applications"Maybe its just the 4wd Rangers, and 2wd could be different in some applications. I do know for a fact that the sector shaft is the same size in a 94 Ranger and an 88 F-250. I've done the sector shaft seal on both, and they were the same size. Either way, my comment was correct.

I apologize for saying you guys all beat on your trucks. I really didn't mean it that way. Just looking at the OP's pictures, that size tires, with the wrong offset on the wheels (single wheels on dually hubs) with a likely lift to make it fit, thats outside the original engineering specs on the truck. That was my point, offroaders sometimes modify their vehicles in ways that cause extra stress on components. Thats why solid axle swaps like dana 60's are so popular, the stock stuff gets pushed past its limits and breaks.

Ford has been using this design steering box since 1982 (according to rockauto, see above). If there were enough of these failing in that time due to design flaws, I'd think recalls would have happened. You're all right, if it breaks on the highway, you're ****ed, thats a big safety problem. There is a hell of a lot of them out there, I don't think it affects most people with how they use their truck.

tjc transport, if you've had 3 of these break, I imagine you're putting a lot of heavily loaded miles on your truck, and probably not on a smooth road. I dont know what to say, maybe I'm wrong, but these things shouldn't break under normal use.

To all of you, and especially Dan, I don't spend a lot of time in this forum because of the crappy attitudes you guys have. Personally I don't give a rats *** what you all think of me. I also don't know where you learned manners. I'll admit when I made a mistake, but it just seems all you guys what to do is get your panties in a bunch and spout all kinds of insults to inflate your ego's. In the future, I'll just stay to the other forums where people are kinder and want to help each other, not act like jackasses.

 

just put a chevy box in it and be done with it!

 

chevy has a better deal? do you know anything about the big truck boxes, bruce? i haven't scrounged in a GOOD junkyard since i was in h/s. just scraps left now

 

I'm willing to be them wheels sticking out so far is part of the reason you broke that sector. I have broke one, after I did that I added hydro assist. And I cracked one since. But I swapped it before it broke.

The farther ourt your tires stick the more leverage on the sector there is.

 

i'm still saying it was cracked to begin with though. i tried to find my old one, but i guess i threw it out. my truck did have 12'' wide rims with a good bit of offset, but my buddy's f250 was on 9.75's tucked in. i still say they should have went with a stronger part, maybe forged or something.

 

Of course it was cracked. I ran a cracked one on my wheeler for a year. I was amazed it didn't break. I'm just sayin that the wide stance doesn't help matters.

 

large tires, and heavy loads are what break the sector shafts in my opinion.
the 2 89's, 2 90's, 91, and 92 never broke sector shafts, but they were not worked like my 88 was.

 

I agree that having the tires way wide is not helping. I don't like having it that way but it is going to have to stay that way until I find the time and money to get a set of SRWD hubs for the front. You have to understand that this truck is a unfinished project. The winter set in and the money ran out before I had a chance to get things right. But from what I am hearing the sector shaft seems to be a weak point. It turns out that they do make a brace to keep side load on the sector shaft to a minimum but I haven't seen any for my truck yet. But it looks like a easy thing to fab up yourself. And sooner or later it looks like a hydro steer setup is going to have to be put on my truck to keep thing safe.