Apparently my 5 year old 15,000 mile Red Head steering gear box decided to start leaking at the red top. Can I order or make a new gasket? Or should I attempt to send it to Red Head to get rebuilt? Or just order a new one? Different better brand.

 

If you decide to go with a different brand, check out the thread below by FTE'r MiamiPSD.

Link: Blue Top - Steering Gear box

 

If my blue top fails early I'm installing the 2011 steering gear. Only got about 40k from my motor craft box

 

First I've heard of that swap. Can you point us to some reading on it?

 

DanV, myself and a few others run the '11-'16 steering gear. The upgrade originated on another forum and has slowly bled into this one. The biggest difficulty with this upgrade is the pitman arm.
A few threads on here.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...x-choices.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ox-swap-3.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...onversion.html

Information copypasta I've posted elsewhere.
[The best suggestions I have, depending on your fab skills;
I solved the pitman arm by making a custom pitman arm. I [posted] about moving the splines over from an 05 to the 04 pitman arm. I sacrificed cheap rough country pitman arms since this was a temp solution for me as I was doing all of this in preparation for the Dana 60. It did work very well though and stayed on until the axle swap.

Option 2 I know there is an XRF/Moog tie rod end that will fit the 05-up pitman arm taper, but I never found a definite part number. I believe it is the same tre that aftermarket adjustable drag links use for 05-16 trucks. This would likely require customizing the draglink or the split sleeve to combine the two. IF you have better luck than I did finding the right one.

Option 3 is to drill out the taper and run a heims joint setup, offroad style. About the same work as the tre. It may not be streetable in your location.

Option 4 is to drill out the taper on the 05 pitman arm and run a taper sleeve. I tried that, and the pitman arm hit the track bar bolt on left turns. However, that was a drop pitman arm and drop bracket so it may be different if you are running stock.

Option 5 is to reach out to custom shops like PMF, Carli, etc., and see if they can sort you out with a drag link that ties it all together.

The best option is the D60 swap. then everything works. life is better. chicks dig it.]

 

Thanks for the link. After tons of reading, it looks like I'll go with the Blue Top if Red Head won't work with me.
Did you notice the BT being real tight for the 1st 1000 miles?

 

I would say that the steering gear responds well to steering wheel input. It is much, much better than the two AutoZoo gears I had and I am sure my steering linkage could use a refresh, but the BT made the truck feel somewhat new again in the steering department. I installed it just before towing the 5th wheel from GA to ID and back because the AutoZoo gear was becoming a safety concern.

 

Put a rh in mine a couple of years ago. No issues with the box. I paid for the return label to return my core, shipped it, and was ghosted. Left with a bitter taste.

 

That sucks.
I Snapped the sector shaft on my original box. Didn't read the fine print and sent it back for my core charge. NOPE.
I loved the performance of the RH also.
Hopefully the BT has the same great feel.

 

I put in a blue top not long ago, along with ball joints, pitman arm, hub assemblies and all tie rods. It improved steering, though isn't back to "new". Still have play in steering wheel. Its good enough so haven't pursued it further, not sure if the slop is in the box or somewhere else.

Experience with BT was good though, prompt core refund.

 

A timely topic since I was just informed by the guy at the alignment shop a couple weeks ago that mine has excessive play in it to adjust the toe which was "out" by about 1 degree it appeared. Now that it was mentioned to me as an issue, I suppose I have noticed the truck wandering around in it's lane a little worse than it used to, so it's probably time for a new one. I think I'll go with the Blue Top but need to crawl under there and figure out if it's a 32 or 36 spline before ordering.

At 15,000 miles I'd be a little upset if it started acting up in any way. I would definitely be calling or emailing them.

 

Spoke with Red Head this morning. They are sending me a new reseal kit at 1/2 price. I'll replace all the seals I can. No need to touch the lash adjuster. $45 with shipping. Im good with that.
My other option was to send my box to them, have them reseal and i pay for shipping back.
Dont have the time for that.

 

I've have my Redhead for about 5 years, issue free FWIW.

 

IIRC I put in the Redhead box about 10 years ago. The OEM was pretty shot when I got the truck. I was not able to remove the OEM pitman arm, and the local shop partially melted it trying to remove it, but RH accepted it as core anyway. Recently had to tighten it up, but very satisfied with it.