varzaman

Almost done removing all the tie rods and ball joints. It's always something, I'm trying to remove the lower ball joint from the knuckle arm, and check it out, completely broke my ball joint tool. Besides beating it with a hammer and heat, will a pickle fork do better?

I got it off yesterday! Loosened the steering column, I was able to gently give it a tap from below while someone was pulling on the column and it slid off. To drop the gearbox itself, surprisingly all I had to do was detach the fuel hose and that's it. Had enough room to wiggle it out.

I'd buy one myself.

Thanks, got a little further until I got stopped again. Now I can't get the box removed from the steering coupler lmao. Luckily I was planning on pulling the whole column out anyways because I need to replace the coupler, but now I *have* to do it before I can get the box out. Never gonna get this thing shipped out at this rate lol. Redoing the steering is by far the worst job I've done on this car so far lol.

Revisiting this a year later so there is at least some information for people who are Googling for info. I reached out to Blue Top, as of this post, they *WILL NOT* work on our steering boxes. They told me they don't have the tooling necessary. Redhead still does the rebuilds. So far they are the one only ones to get back to me that they do. Surprisingly, they have a box available off the shelf as well, but you have to send in a core for it (otherwise its expensive, $700).

Hey did you ever attempt this conversion? Wondering how it turned out.

I had to pound the hell outta the ball joint tool to get it in there. It basically acted like a pickle fork, because when it actually seated itself it popped the center link off anyways, so never ended up using the the actual press part of the tool lol. But yea, its off now.

So I tried a separator that has a 7/8" opening and that still wouldn't fit. It looks like the jaws are too thick to actually fit in, not that the opening is too small. The boots on the idle part of the center link look like trash anyways, so I don't care anymore about keeping it nice, I'm getting the center link replaced. I don't own any pickle forks, so before I buy some I'm gonna just try hammering the ball joint tool into place or just hammering on the knuckle and seeing if it pops it loose.

I have a ball joint separator with a 3/4" opening from Harbor Freight, like so: https://www.harborfreight.com/3-4-quarter-inch-forged-ball-joint-separator-99849.html I was hoping this would be a good replacement for the tool the manual lists as MB991113/MB990635. Unfortunately it doesn't actually fit, the jaws are too narrow for me to get underneath the idler or pitman arm. I can't find any specs about the MB991113/MB990635, so I have no idea how big their jaw openings are. What size does the jaw openings need to be to get them out? I don't want to use a pickle fork for fear of damage. Anyone know of a tool that fits?

Haha, I remember you mentioning this when I asked where to send my steering box last year. Even without the leaking, there was plenty of slop so I was going to get the box rebuilt. Will call some local hydraulic shops to see if any of them can make me power steering lines. If anyone knows of good places in the Pittsburgh area, lmk.

This is a great idea! Adding it to my list.

Haven't worked on my car in a while. Finally got back into the groove. I have to replace my steering box, it is leaking like crazy, so my next project is taking it out. While it is out, just wanted to ask, what else should I do before putting the steering box back in?

Gotcha, redhead steering it is. Now to get the box out. And yea, I started hunting for lines and can’t find any, so you might have a point there.

My steering gearbox had a lot of slop in it. On top of that, it leaks like crazy, all my power steering fluid is gone and it all came out of the steering gearbox. I figure it’s time to get it rebuilt. I remember on these forums people had suggestions on who can rebuild these steering boxes, but I can’t for the life of me find them. So I’m asking here. As an aside, worth replacing the power steering lines with something flexible? Thanks!

Your mistake is my gain, because I'm gonna need to send my box to get rebuilt and you just gave me a lead.