Power Steering Gear Leaking - replace or rebuild?

[crazzmc]

Hi guys,

My steering gear in my 68 F100 has been slowly leaking and its at the point where I literally can't steer whatsoever when parked so I need to replace the seals or the entire gear itself. I am extremely new to steering stuff, and a bit scared to be honest to get inside of it. I've been scouring online to find good affordable replacements and rebuild kits.

I believe I have the Ford/Saginaw style. There are some ford stamps on the gear and some letters/numbers, but a bit hard to read.

Here are some gears I found:

https://www.cjponyparts.com/power-steer ... awEALw_wcB

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/for ... +gear,7416

Here's a rebuild kit by Gates (not sure if this is all I need):

Gates - https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 0&jsn=1003

If I do go the buy and replace route not sure whether I should buy a refurbished one or a new one?
If anyone has had experience restoring one how difficult is it? Any way I could damage it?
Recommendations on removing it correctly so I don't have any alignment problems when putting it back in?

Appreciate all the help!

Crazz

[sargentrs]

The Lares brand is a good box and a good price at Rockauto. These guys also have an excellent reputation.
https://redheadsteeringgears.com/produc ... ring-gear/
There are rebuild videos on YouTube although I didn't find an exact match to ours. Looks simple enough.

[rhyne]

just my recently bought my next project ‘79 bronco, the PO said the gearbox needed rebuilt. anyhoo i took it apart to see what i was getting into and the gear was actually broke. got a refurb from summit and all’s well. in my case i’d rather spend a little extra and have a known good one than try to repair and cross my fingers that it will be good and end up buying a new gear anyway. a pain to do that job 2x on a bronco anyways.

[sparky72]

Does Redhead offer steering gears for bumps?

[sargentrs]

Yes, that link I posted above is the one for our trucks.

[crazzmc]

The Lares brand is a good box and a good price at Rockauto. These guys also have an excellent reputation.
https://redheadsteeringgears.com/produc ... ring-gear/
There are rebuild videos on YouTube although I didn't find an exact match to ours. Looks simple enough.

Yeah I watched a Saginaw replacement didn't look too hard just always that worry in the back of my mind that I might mess it up. But man those redheads are looking nice. It says 1970-1979, but it looks the same. I might try to rebuild mine just because of the price difference and if I fail for some reason just end up going with redhead they look like a reputable company.

just my recently bought my next project ‘79 bronco, the PO said the gearbox needed rebuilt. anyhoo i took it apart to see what i was getting into and the gear was actually broke. got a refurb from summit and all’s well. in my case i’d rather spend a little extra and have a known good one than try to repair and cross my fingers that it will be good and end up buying a new gear anyway. a pain to do that job 2x on a bronco anyways.

Yeah I think I want to attempt it but just buy the new one anyway haha just for the peace of mind.


Thanks for the input guys!

[sparky72]

Yes, that link I posted above is the one for our trucks.

Doh! I should have read the post more carefully. I thought it was a rockauto link

[sargentrs]

It says 1970-1979, but it looks the same.

They only say that because most of '69 and earlier used the Bendix box. '70-'79 everything was Saginaw.