Steer box info?

[NeXuS1]

i have a friend who has basicly same truck as mine, just not as badass, took in his truck a while ago to get the tires rotated and balance. The guy there said his steering box is toast, and it should be replaced, but he would never hear any noise from it. just the way it is.. i dont know if the guy there was right or just trying to screw him out of some money. my question is... is there any signs if it is bad and if it is how much would it cost  to replace? since he quoted 400 dollars from the GM dealer.  

[Frank S]

You can actually remove,rebiuld and replace it for around ? if I remember correctly.

I did one on a '79 Camaro about 5 years ago and if you have the parts,it's around a 5-6 hour job with moderate mechanic skills.

Your typical slack(factory standards)is between 1/8 & 1/4 turn.Signs that it may be wearing out is popping when you turn,you can usually feel it in the wheel,and more turns of the wheel to turn the vehicle.

If it feels like there is too much "play" in the wheel and you don't get the popping,try to tighten the worm gear bolt on top of the box 1/2 turn each time until you get to the above stated specs.

[Guest Friz]

While we're on the subject of steering boxes, One of my friends is a mechanic and had a customer that kept ruining steering boxes on a '95-98 1/2 ton Chevy 4x4. Turns out that he had huge tires on it and did a lot of 4 wheeling.

This mechanic found out that if you put the valves from a 1 ton steering box in the 1/2 ton box, it is easier to control and the box won't burn up.

Anyone else heard of this?

[Frank S]

I've never heard about the valves from a gear box being swapped but if your friend is a mechanic,he'd know more about it than I would.

I have heard of ppeople changing to a different ratio to tightem the turn radius but I have no idea what that entails other than a worm gear change.

[n8huntsman]

Are the boxes in the '01 and up HD's the same as the older boxes?