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I have a 96 F150 4x4 auto 302, it has a lot of play in the steering while driving. Everything in the front end is tight/ greased with no play. I have tightened the steering box which helped. I was wondering if there was a recommended replacement for my truck that would be better than oem?
I put a Redhead in my 97 FSuperduty and although it cost more, it is far superior to the cheaper rebuilt units from the parts houses. I put a fresh rebuilt from Oreileys in my 78 F150 4x4 and it was WORSE than the one I took out. It will be getting a Redhead soon too.
The steering box in my dad's '87 was broken when we got it. Not just worn, actually broken. We replaced it with one from the wreckers. It was cheap and it works as well as it needs to.
+1 for not even looking at the cheap reman garbage. A friend and I installed Vision OE remans on our daily drivers (one Nissan, one Chevy, both well over 200k miles with worn-out steering boxes). Neither was an improvement, in fact I'm pretty sure mine's worse. It also leaks just enough to **** me off. And when we pressure-washed my friend's truck, most of the paint on the steering box fell off. One of these days I'll get over the sticker shock and order a Redhead.
Blue Top out of North Dakota is another quality steering box and is owned by Ryan, a cousin who owns Red Head. Ryan worked for his cousin at Red Head and then branched out on his own, both are reputable. Fall of 2017 I used a Blue Top steering gear box in my 77 F-150 and it now steers like it was new (I know wrong forum mentioning the 77 F-150). But I like both generations of Fords 73-79 and 92-96.