Nice!!!
why am i surprised the autozone in front of the huge distribution center let you down?

i look forward to your impression on the gear and nice save/tip on the orings for those of us who do this next time!

 

It happens... Other projects and adventures took precedence. Staring at up to 10,000 miles over the next 3 months though and driving your Excursion, the AZ had to go.

I figured you knew the place I was referring to. It is all good though. Supposedly they took the bad puller out of inventory and the good one worked flawlessly.

I'll let you know. I'm sure I'll point it out to you when y'all come up. Hopefully I will have an impression by then too to share with you.

 

FYI... I was just looking over the core return tag and it specifically states to use the port plugs and splin/gear covers when sending the core back. I will calculate the price via USPS.com tomorrow and update what it costs to send from my house and have the box picked up. UPS was $48 shipped from BlueTop to north GA.

 

Well, USPS is NOT going to work for this. The box the BlueTop came in is slightly too big for the large flat rate USPS box to fit in, and the shipping estimate came up to $63.95. There is a UPS store 20 miles from my home and based on the calculated shipping through UPS ground, it costs $27.60.

 

I'll be surprised if 48lbs goes UPS for $28.

 

Well...

The gear is 29.5 lbs, the box is 12.5 x 12.5 x 6.5 and the UPS Store has no idea what simple rate shipping is. When I click "ship now" at the $27.60 price, the link is broken and it errors out.

UPS customer service is sure the problem is with my device, so I left it at that.

We have a UPS small distribution center a little ways away that is open from 4 - 6 today for shipping. I am going to call them about the simple rate shipping option and if they are clueless as well, I will just send it back UPS via retail store price.

Slight hassle, but all worth it to get a tight steering gear.

 

I think with how bad usps has been since last fall its worth ups for your core not to "get lost" or damaged.

I payed for ups back for me core return, I think it was $40-50. Ive been avoiding usps for any online purchases since my debacle last December with some door actuators that took 32 days to show up for a customers vehicle which led to a huge pissing match over the return, since i had to purchase some elsewhere in mean time to get the truck out the door.

 

I figured it out! Shipped from GA to ND for $27.60 via UPS ground 3 day shipping with $500 as the value of the item.

UPS Simple rate details - https://www.ups.com/us/en/services/s...mple-rate.page

Follow these steps before dropping the box off at a UPS retail location, distribution center, drop off location or whatever. This is only available online... Read all the way to the end, after the image below...

DO NOT LOG IN TO UPS.COM IF YOU HAVE AN ACCOUNT, IT WILL NOT WORK.

1. Go to UPS.com
2. Click shipping
3. Click calculate time and cost
4. Input origination zip code and destination zip code
5. Input date to be shipped
6. Click update
7. Under section 2, make sure Simple Rate is ON, not OFF
8. Select large box if your box is 12.5 x 12.5 x 6.5 as mine was
9. Input value
10. Click update
11. Click Ship Now which is the last button in the chart
12. Input your billing information and print your label

Here is the catch... The label will show up with a weight as seen above, my label says 7 lbs. This is not a factor or true representation of the weight of the box. When creating the label, there is no field to insert the weight of the box, the weight is system generated. It does not matter what the label says for weight as long as the box is less than 50 lbs in total. I called twice to get clarification on this and both times the representative said the same thing.

Happy shipping and what a great day to save $15!

 

@MiamiPSD , I wanted to tag you in an effort to save you on shipping via UPS. Please see post #38 for details on how to send the core back for 50% the cost.

Reply here or PM me if you have questions or concerns.

 

Thank you Sous. I went ahead and followed your instructions. Question....What fluid will you be using? Motorcraft or Mobil one synthetic?

 

Cool, I am glad you were able to take advantage of the cheap core return shipping!

As for the fluid...

I'm using the left over gallon bottle of Valvoline synthetic ATF that I had from the last time I did this with the POS AutoZone replacement gear. I have about a 1/2 gallon left, should be plenty of fluid.

The bottle is imaged below. The only reason I went with this brand is because that is what I bought at AZ 4 years ago when the OEM steering gear exploded and I needed to perform a roadside repair. I rented the tools, bought a POS steering gear, fluid, etc and went home to get my jacks, etc... Just another time the "chase car" paid for the fuel in ease of moving around and getting back to enjoying life. We were about 2 hours from home camping on the next lake after Hartwell in the Savannah river basin.

Paul (AllAboutMPG) drove 3 hours up early in the morning to meet and help me out. I am forever in his debt and we made a lifelong friend that day.

 

@MiamiPSD Holy crap!

I have been suffering with 2" of play in the steering wheel for years and now that is ALL GONE! GONE, GONE FOREVER!!!

Can you tell I am excited about this?

After installing the steering gear and finishing up some other maintenance items today, I took the truck on 25 miles of winding country roads. Then 70 miles of 60% interstate and I can tell you without a doubt the BlueTop is 100% worth the effort and cost. Steering is tight, smooth, responsive and the gear doesn't even leak! Is that too much to ask for from a parts store gear, apparently so.

I hope your experience is as good as mine is and I am so very grateful to you for pushing me over the edge to order one. Also, my gear was dropped off at the BlueTop headquarters today at 12:34.

 

Wow...thats is awesome news and glad we both took the plunge cause I too have a smile on my face and it took a lot to spend the extra cash but at the end...it was well worth it.

 

[QUOTE=Sous;19833873]
I have been suffering with 2" of play in the steering wheel for years and now that is ALL GONE! GONE, GONE FOREVER!!!
/QUOTE]

2" WOW ! I have maybe .75" of play.... and I been bitching about that.... I'm not ready for a new box, hopefully for a long time in the future !

 

Agreed! Money well spent!

Yes, sadly there were other projects and expenses that took priority over the crappy AutoZone steering gear. It was bad and I am not exaggerating the 2" of play.

Next time we hang out Bill, I will show you the video of me turning the gear box by hand.

BlueTop is an incredible improvement.