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Just thought I'd report that my hard steering while stopped/slow speeds have been fixed by replacing the power steering box with a Red Head unit.
Things I replaced without helping:
1) Power Steering Pump (Tried 2x Motorcraft Remans)
2) Idler Arm
3) Power steering flush
The new steering box obviously removed the 1.5-2.0" steering wheel play and now the truck drives straight and true. Low speed steering has been corrected. The box I pulled off appeared to be the original Ford unit.
Any new or reman'd steering box would have solve your hard steering but many don't want to spend the money for a Red Head unit. I've used a Ford reman'd unit (failed after 85,665 miles, 5 years) and now on a NAPA/Cardone branded box.
Yes, I agree, probably any remanned unit would have made it better and/or fixed it. I had searched high and low for a fix for the hard steering for many months, and I may have read only 1 or 2 posts about the gearbox being the culprit. I just wanted to make sure that if someone was at their wits end like myself, it is worth to swap out. Not to mention, only a 2-3 hour job !
I'm probably going to regret this but here goes. Good luck with your RedHead box,( and I mean that) I bought and installed one on my now sold 2007 F250 gasser and it lasted less 15,000 miles. Being the fact that I don't care to much for wrenching anymore, I took the loss and added it to my lessons learned from experience column. Bought a Cardone box and moved on. When the RedHead box failed the vehicle was not drive-able even to get it to the shop for replacement. I'm not one to spend my time fighting with vendors for rebates or refunds, I just take my business elsewhere.
I'm probably going to regret this but here goes. Good luck with your RedHead box,( and I mean that) I bought and installed one on my now sold 2007 F250 gasser and it lasted less 15,000 miles. Being the fact that I don't care to much for wrenching anymore, I took the loss and added it to my lessons learned from experience column. Bought a Cardone box and moved on. When the RedHead box failed the vehicle was not drive-able even to get it to the shop for replacement. I'm not one to spend my time fighting with vendors for rebates or refunds, I just take my business elsewhere.
That is a bummer! I have heard mostly good things about Red Head boxes for many years, a few bad experiences mixed in... So far it feels great. Will report back if anything goes bad!
Once again, I had written this post mainly to document to others for future reference that the steering box replacement fixed the stopped/low speed issues I was experiencing. The amount of searching that I did, I did not find a ton of people reporting this fixing the issue.