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My steering box needs to be replaced on my 2005 F250 Super Duty. 97,000 miles. I bought it 4 years ago with 56,000 miles on it. I look forward to hearing more about the Red-Head steering gear and it's use. I'm thinking of buying one next month. Luckily, I have a second vehicle and can keep my truck in the yard until I can get one. Thanks.

 

Awesome info thanks. this is what makes this forum so awesome.not so nervous about the swap now.

 

I am curious, I installed my Redhead Steering box and it is really stiff. So stiff in fact that I have memory steer. Does the box break in over time? I don't drive the truck alot so I am curious. But as of right now, the steering is very stiff.

 

Did it only appear when you installed the steering box? Did you replace any other parts at the same time?

 

Yes. I did ball joints but drove the truck 500 miles and 1 month before I got to the steering box. The steering box was the only thing at the time. My old box was leaking and extremely loose. I choose to change out the steering box. Been driving 1 month and am hoping it loosens up as time goes. That has been my experience with the Redhead Steering box. One thing to add was I was 2 weeks late getting the old unit back to Redhead and it states on their invoice you only get 50% back on the core charge versus 100% if not returned in the allotted time. To their credit, they gave me 100% credit.

 

I replaced my ball joints a few hundred miles before installing my steering box. I had a bad memory steer issue afterwards as well. It ended up being a defective lower ball joint on the drivers side.

I would jack up the truck, remove the tire and remove the tie rod from one side. Turn the knuckle on that side by hand. It should move freely and fairly easy through the full range of motion. If it does reconnect the tie rod on that side and repeat the process for the other. If either side turns stiffly then it could be ball joints or u-joint on that side. Make sure you check both sides regardless. If neither side is stiff then it is mostly likely the steering box but you'll need to do further investigation.

 

Ok so ford install a new power steering pump and my new redhead gear box. The whole deal dealing with ford was a nightmare so ill stick to the gear box only. My truck had about 80,000 miles on it when the OEM gear box got a little sloppy so i decided to replace it. Upon looking for a good replacement i came across this thread two years ago. Being a member i always like to find feed back on this forum as it has been generally good for me. After two years and 34,000 miles the new red head gear box needs replaced. The wear has got to the point that the output shaft has taken out the seal and the gear box is slowly starting to leak more fluid each day. I have a lifted truck 4.5" with 35" tire but the truck has been lifted for some time. I want to be far on this but the stock gear box had no lift tell 65,000 miles so in theory, after the lift the gear box went out in 15,000 miles. Now this is saying that the lift was the issue and it is actually hard to prove it but the Red head box has gone out after 34,000 miles.

So what would your opinion be, the lift and large tires are the lack of life in the red head or did the red head just really fall short compared to the OEM. Im just trying to make an informed design this time before purchasing another box from ford or red head. Thanks

Also the price seems different then what i have seen y'all claim. I paid around 580.00 with the core, was late getting the core back and only got 50% but business is business.

 

I just bought a Cardone steering box for $128 from advance auto and put it in. It was a bit of a pain but I did it myself w/o a second set of hands.

Not sure how much better a RedHead would be but the difference between the sloppy old loose one and this is day and night. The truck stopped wandering all over the road, I have less then 1/8" of play left to right now where before I had a 4-6" dead spot .

It may not last forever but then again for $128 I can replace it 4 times for the cost of a OEM or RedHead

EDIT: Truck also has 305x70x16 mudders on stock XLT rims and dual steering stabilizers
EDIT #2: The replacement is also under warranty so if you do the work yourself and it fails its only your time thats spent.

 

isnt them red head ones just a rebuilt oem one painted red?

 

LOL @ Skip1970

From what I have read ALL non OEM Ford steering boxes are just remanufactured/rebuilt OEM units . Thats why there is a core charge for em'

I haven't seen any reliable or verifiable information on any changed that RedHead or ANYONE does aside from replace worn worm gears or other parts with OEM spec'd ones.

Aside from better Quality Control possibly with RedHEad on them leaving , as long as they have a warranty your odds are about the same as any other. The difference is the price. And I think I could paint the top of my new one red too ;P

 

id paint mine ford blue.

 

I am kinda fond of everything being black under the hood to match the truck. Once you start painting things red or blue the next thing is you end up looking like a honda civic with spinners and neon lights ! :P

 

Here is an explanation of their remanufacturing process.

Red-Head Steering Gears - Steering Gear Re-Manufacturing in USA

I don't think you'll find that Cardone or really any others do what Redhead does. However, if it's failing on you then whatever process is used doesn't really matter. You'll have to debate wether you got a poorly build unit from RedHead or not and if you want to give them another shot.

As for me I have close about 45k miles without any issues but my truck is mainly stock.

 

There propaganda is what sold me on Redhead in the first place. But after just over 30,000
Mine is failing so I am not sure there all that better then the stock factory box . But that's not to say if I went with one of these cheaper units it wouldn't fail even ealier. Warranties are great but if the product simply Dosent hold up one can get tired of changing them real quick. With all that being said I will proably give the redhead one more shot because overall they still appear to get the best feed back when you search around.