[fastback ry]

Has anyone done this themselves? Hard? Pain in the butt?

[The Greek]

I've done a couple. A problem that you'll encounter is finding recirculating balls, if you need them. If the chrome plating on them has worn away or corrosion has left them pitted, the balls are junk. The plating is what creates a hard, wear resistant surface. If it's gone the balls will eventually start galling or wearing. This can lead to binding where the steering will take more effort, momentarily, as the steering wheel is turned. A very unnerving feel to say the least. You won't find new ones at the hardware store. It's not that easy. The diameter of them is a non-standard size. Unless you can salvage some from another box, you will need to go to a shop that specializes in bearings and have them special ordered. There is a specific number of balls that are required and none of them can be left out.

The other problem that you will possibly encounter is wear and pitting on the sector shaft, ball nut and steering shaft. If it's found, the shaft assys. are, for the most part, junk. The steering shaft (The long shaft that the steering wheel is attached to.) Has machined grooves on the other end for the recirculating balls to ride in. If there's pitting or galling, it will ruin new balls. The mating grooves to the shaft are in the ball nut. Same thing. Unless you have the ability to repair this stuff, you'll need to find good used parts. New shaft assemblies are made of unobtainium, so to say. Then again, you may be lucky. Before you spend money on a seal or bearing kit, you might want to pull the box apart to see what you have to work with. You'll need a press to install new bearings, FYI.

The last time I rebuilt a box was a few years ago. It might be a good idea to do a web search. Parts for our Mustangs are much more plentiful now.

[Sick467]

I just rebuilt mine from my 67. It was SMB-B, which is the same type they put in the 66 GTs, Shelbys, and Power Steering models. For all practical purposes they're all the same. The worst part for me was finding the "rare" and non-reproduced pitman arm that converted my 1" sector shaft power steering to manual. I used the rebuild kit from....

http://www.stangerssite.com/steeringsysteminfo.html

which comes with excellent instructions and his site will more than give enough to read. You will need a torque wrench that reads 0 to 10 inch pounds. This reading is very low as far as torques wrenches are concerned and don't confuse inch pounds with foot pounds. 25 foot pounds is about what a spark pug requires so you can get a feel for what 10 inch pounds would be (alot less). Actually tearing the box down and building it back up went smoothly for me, however it would be easy to damage the needle bearings if you pressed them in crooked to start with and the kit does not come with extras. This preview of a Mustang Restoration book fortunately has all the pages neccessary for rebuilding the box, so enjoy.

Mustang Restoration Handbook - Google Books

I was lucky enough to have the right size sockets that fit the bearings so that they could be tapped in. The right way would be to press them in, but I don't have a press so some patience and a hammer did the trick. The most important aspect of rebuilding your box is to be able to recognize worn out hard parts. In general, your boxes from a pwoer steering car will have much better hard parts than the boxes that were in a manual car because the boxes from power cars saw much less stress. The two links have all the info a guy needs to determine if he wants to tackle the job. The toughest parts is getting over the fear of the unknown.

Stangerssite has a good reputation among Mustang forums and so does this place if you choose to find a rebuilder instead of doing it yourself...

Rode's Restoration
1406 Lohr Road
Galion, Ohio 44833

Phone (419) 468-5182 / Fax (419) 462-1753


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[fastback ry]

I think I'll bite the bullet, learn something and do it my self. Thanks for the sites and info.

"The toughest parts is getting over the fear of the unknown"...how true. I think that is my fear now.