I've a 2002 F350 CC Dually with ~ 160K miles and steering box problems. It had been getting worse gradually but last year on a trip from NE Mississippi to Alexandria, Va it became fairly bad, about 2" to 3" of play. I thought "Time to take it in". My son-in-law and I had diagnosed it as the steering box.
I've only lived in the Alexandria area since 1975 and had only found 2 mechanics/shops I trusted and one stopped taking "small stuff". The other, Alban Tire always was fair and honest.
So I took it in and asked them to fix it, mentioning the steering box controller needed replacing.
Well they replaced the drag link, the tie rod and the front bearings but didn't do the box.
The mechanic that did the work told me that what they did should have tightened it up enough for inspection and that furthermore they didn't deal with 3rd party parts like Blue Top and that the Rebuilt controllers from Ford were a crap shoot.
So - anyways - it passed inspection but could still stand to be a lot tighter.
Reading BWST's thread it seems that it should be doable.
Does anyone know some good shops in Northern Virginia that could do the work?

 

Do you know there is an Adjuster on the top the the steering Box?
It is very easy to do once you know how to do it. It will tighten up the internals of the steer box and therefore tightens your steering up.
I had 38"x14.50 tires on my old 2000 super duty and I was adjusting the steer box semi regularly.

 

If there's any chance of replacing it under warranty, don't try adjusting it. Most manufacturers/rebuilders will void all warranties if you do.

 

It's been a couple minuets since I've done one but, if I recall it's 1 clamp bolt on the steering shaft. A nut on the pitman arm, a pressure and return hose, and 3 bolts mounting it to the frame. Grab the son in law, a bag of kitty litter, and a creeper and he should have it done by lunch.

 

I don't know anybody to recommend in that area but this is not a particularly hard repair for any competent shop that does front end work to swap out a steering gear.

Find a shop that wont feed you that line of crap about not letting you bring or spec your own part, or will source it from Blue Top themselves for you. There are two different spine counts on the pitman arm and you need to match up the Ford P/N on the pitman arm to get the correct box. Shops just do that so they can overcharge you for jobber quality garbage parts. Real truck shop that isn't run by clowns or crooks wont have a problem working with you.

 

my mechanic will gladly install the new parts that I hand to him.
I am up front, and tell him I will make up the difference by paying him extra for doing the work.

he replies, that just saves me from trying to locate the right part for your old truck....

he and I get along, I tell him to back mine out of the shop, if someone comes along and says " I need this fixed now "

so, it takes 3 or 4 weeks?
I don't care, we have more transportation here than we need...

he charges me less for my work, than the "other guy"

 

Yes I know about the adjuster, but I don't have a shop in Virginia, and in talking with several mechanics they advised against adjusting it. They thought it would likely break. My main use of the truck is to haul a loaded trailer down to Mississippi, a 900 mile trip. A breakdown on that trip would be really bad.

 

That is why I'm asking here for recommendations. I've had enough bad experience's with shops promising to fix things, taking a month for parts, then not fixing the problem at all. Alban Tire got me past inspection, but didn't fully fix the problem.

 

I don't think that's necessarily an adjustment **** rather than for initial setup. I adjusted mine and it wasn't long before it completely failed...so I got a redhead back when they were still good and bluetop didn't even exist.

In defense of your shop...It is very common for shops not to accept parts brought in by the owner...Main reason is if the part fails or doesn't fit/ work the shop gets blamed for it 99.9% of the time. they do it to cover their ***** and prevent a circle jerk when the customer brings them crap parts. i don't blame them one bit for not accepting perts provided by a customer.
But in hindsight, if they knew about bluetops, then they could agree to install one.

another reason why some shops probably don't accept outside parts is because they lose out on their huge markups. I can see both sides.

If I was you, I'd buy one and knock it out yourself. It's a very easy job that only takes basic common tools besides a puller for the pitman arm; which can be rented for a reasonable cost.


I'm not sure how much play you still have but play isn't necessarily the concern, it's if it starts getting hard to turn in one direction. I mean if it's so much play thats unsafe for driving, sure. to me, it sounds like you could make your trip while you are waiting for a unit to be shipped to your place. then replace it when you get back

 

I've mentioned that when I prepurchase parts,
I am up front with my mechanic, and pay him the "extra" he would get for selling the parts...

he is gold to me, and I gotta keep him in good graces...
I never ask him to warrantee parts, just do the labor for me.

 

I'm not faulting the shop. Their house, their rules.
And from all I've read that IS an adjustment ****, but on older aged parts it can be a destruction ****.
When I bought the truck, used, in 2012 I had planned on getting 10 years of use out it at LEAST. And by then something newer and better (and not tooo expensive) would have come out and I could relegate it to an occasional use farm truck/garage queen. And my needs would change.
Well that almost worked out. I got 11 years of use out of it. My needs changed.
BUT
Along came Covid and every blasted decent replacement truck became EXPENSIVE.
And, in my opinion, the 7.3 Dually, has become MORE VALUABLE than when I bought it, If I could just fix a simple problem - find another good reliable mechanic.

 

I would do it yourself or find a guy near you with a 7.3l or 6.0l to help. Hardest parts are the Pitman and bleeding the system (which isnt that bad).

I recently upgraded to the 05 to 07 gear. That took me 3 hours, and alot of that time was trying to get at the ps hose that needs to be replaced. Also broke the drill bit ( it was a cheapie but it had 1 job!). Also needed a good bleed.

You can adjust your current one, and it will take some slack out. That said this is a bandaid. You do not want to go to far, and it will accelerate wear and tear. I did this, and towards the end it got downright scary. But i also got long enough out of it to complete my coil swap. Never came apart but i bet she is about too. Last trip i adjusted it again and it was barely hanging on ( it felt like i had almost no power steering, but i had swapped to the new suspension already and it hated the 06 axle)...

 

In the event you ever find yourself down my way, would be willing to lend a hand once I get a couple of the projects I'm working on taken care of. Not a horrible job by any means, but like you it's not something I'd take to a place I don't trust (seems everywhere is getting sub-par these days for some reason).

 

Really appreciate the offer. But probably what will happen is I'll make it a summer planned project if I can't find a place I trust.

 

I'd go with adjusting the current box first. It is a bit awkward to get in there but not at all difficult. I adjusted my Red Head box a few months ago, no problems.

Open end wrench plus an allen wrench, IIRC was metric. Clean the area then insert allen wrench and loosen lock nut. Observe the allen wrench position first, and righty-tighty the shaft say 1/2 turn given how loose your steering wheel is. Then lock it down again while maintaining the position of the shaft. Drive it and check for play and lock to lock. Don't rush it, sneak up on it in small bites like 1/8 of a turn. Getting it too tight will destroy it. Mine took 4 increasingly smaller adjustments to get back to normal. I removed the AIS each time for easier access.

I had great beer on hand so I took my time.