Did a search but didn't find any prior mention of this on the forum.

Just had my mechanic put a RedHead steering gear box in my 2002 7.3L and it's GREAT!!!



Bought the truck over 10 years ago and have only put about 20k miles on it myself but it has 222k miles on it now. There was always a huge amount of play in the steering wheel, since I 1st bought it, that made driving the truck sometimes really scary.

Replaced the ball joints 4-5 years ago that helped to take most of the slop out of the steering but there was still some play and I had been meaning to replace the steering gear box for some time. Finally got around to doing it and the steering is now like new -- absolutely no more play in the steering wheel -- very precise and responsive steering, even w/the oversized 305/70R16 Toyo Open Country MT tires on it.

Did research on the various options. The cheap $150 rebuilds from AutoZone and O'Reilly's were constantly panned -- didn't last long, didn't help resolve play issues and had to be replaced frequently. The much more expensive RedHead (mine cost $356 plus $70 shipping) kept popping up as the steering box to buy. Here are some of the things they say that you get for the extra cost:

"Our re-manufacturing process:

• Machining out the housings and installing needle bearings
• Flame-spraying or replacing the shafts as needed Installing new control valves on some applications
• Custom fitting each worm & piston assembly with special ordered, precise over-sized ball bearings.

Other things we do to produce a top quality product include:

• Install every sector shaft on a lathe to check for straight and true
• polish the sealing surface to a higher polish than new."

They also say:

"Some original housings are manufactured without bushing or bearings. This is commonly seen in some Ford steering gears and Chrysler steering gears. We rebore these units and install needle bearings.

We use only the highest quality seals. All our seals are either O.E.M. or produced by two high quality, long time suppliers of our industry.

Probably the most unique and important thing we do is custom fit every single worm and piston assembly with new precision fit steel *****. This is a process not matched by any other company in the industry. This process is very important. The machining tolerances of the original manufacturing leave a small and varying amount of play that can be corrected in no other way."

I have no interest in the company except as a customer but if you're in need of a new steering gear box, I'd highly recommend that you consider RedHead. You can find them here: https://www.redheadsteeringgears.com.

The only problem I've read about the company is that they are slow in refunding the $200 core charge. I am sending my core back today and will have to wait and see how long it takes to get my core charge back.

 

You didn't search very well, then. Red Heads have been talked about for eons here...from before Colonel Sanders even thought about rank.

All kidding aside, FTE has had the top three biggest group purchases for Red Head units going back about 5 or 6 years. We have tech threads dedicated to installing them. Seriously. Not sure what search method you used (if any) but you'll find a ton of info about red heads here.

Stewart

 

Red Head service is great. They accepted my core even though the pitman arm was magically and permanently fused to the sector shaft. New box performs perfectly too.

FWIW the native search function on this forum is sub-optimal. I usually pop over to a google window and paste "site:www.ford-trucks.com" to my search terms. There's gold in them thar hills but ya gotta know how to find it.

 

I got mine on a group buy a few years ago and couldn't be happier.

 

^^^^THIS^^^^

Which is exactly how I find the majority of results that are relevant to what I am looking for on FTE. Even using the advanced function returns irrelevant results.

"Sub-Otimal"! You sir, are being kind.

 

While the search function may be lacking, searching "Red Head" in this forum brings back at least 4 threads with Red Head in the title on the first page, and a ton of other easily identified threads about steering, that if a person took a minute to click on and read, would more than likely find someone was talking about a Red Head unit. So, forgive me but I have a real problem with the OP's opening line.

FTE has enough issues that people complain about. I draw the line at imaginary ones.

Stewart

 

Stewart, the feisty super mod!

 

Good topic, considering that there was a topic of the RH not long ago, about QA. Had anyone found a suitable alternative

 

Snapped my sector shaft last night. I guess ill be $400+ lighter in a couple hrs.

 

I had to change out the original OEM steering box for an AutoZone version a couple months ago. I was at a campground and the OEM one exploded just as we finished backing the trailer in.

The AutoZone box was an updated version which had 4 bolts on the top instead of 2 on a diamond shaped cover like the OEM version.

I am optomistic that the AutoZone box will last a while, but only time will tell. I could not wait for the RedHead box because we were in a bit of a time crunch and the truck needed to be in running condition.

 

Sorry if this thread is redundant.

I did do a search for "RedHead" but found nothing here nor anything linking back to this forum via Google. Go figure . . .

Just had to brag about my new steering gear box but sounds like you all knew about that already.

Just happy that I made the right decision to bite the bullet and pay the extra $ for the RedHead steering gear for my trusty old F250.

 

User reports are appreciated as time goes on. Problems should not arise early on but in time they might and I would like to hear how it performs for you.

 

Shameless plug for my install thread.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...ml#post7580464

 

Me too, me too........except mine is piggybacked off Christina's kick *** post.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post12574987

Tim M

 

Oooh! Nice! Not sure I realized there was another out there! Gonna add this to the ones I already have listed in the Excursion tech folder along with Tim's and Christina's!!

Stewart