Jeepin Jason
NAXJA Member #1100
- Location
- Lewisville, TX
edit: The reason for this upgrade was that my stock box was dying, and had been on its way out since this summer. It'd gotten to the point where the Jeep was basically undriveable. So the box needed to be replaced, and for not much more $$$ than a replacement stock box, the Durango box seemed like a good upgrade. I'd read lots of good feedback on the swap on here and the TJ forums on JU and JeepForum, and while assist might be nice, I really don't have any plans for it, otherwise I'd probably have just sprung for one of PSC's pre-ported boxes. My pump had also been leaking a bit for quite some time, so I decided to go ahead and replace that as well since I was working on it all anyway.
The first order of business was pulling the pitman arm. Since this was the first time pulling the pitman arm or removing the steering box, I made sure to soak everything down with PB Blaster a day ahead of time. The pitman arm popped off without too much trouble, but I've definitely broken my fair share of pitman arm pullers working on other Jeeps.
Either my pump or my reservior has been leaking just slightly for quite some time now, so I decided I'd go ahead an pull the whole assembly out and clean it and inspect it since I was going to be in there anyway. There are about 7 bolts holding the steering pump and bracket to the motor, and they're a fun mix of 13mm and 9/16". Once I got the pump unbolted, I used a small bolt to just hold it up in place while I went to work on the steering box. You'll have to remove the auxillary fan before you can start to unbolt the steering pump.
The two lines connecting to the box take an 18mm wrench, and if you've got a stubby wrench, that would certainly come in handy. You could probably go ahead and unbotl the box from the body before removing the PS lines, but I figured it'd be just as easy to go ahead and remove the lines while the box was still bolted up. The front line is the high-pressure feed line, and the rear line is the return line to the reservior. I had to unbolt the front line and move it out of the way before I could undo the return line.
Since the reservoir was still full, I used a pair of visegrips to clamp off the line while I removed it from the box, that way I'd have a bit more control over the fluid draining out.
Once I got the lines unhooked from the box and the reservior drained, I pulled the pump assembly out and set it aside to deal with later (I may end up just going ahead and replacing the pump since I've got it out and it's got a little over 100K miles on it).
The steering shaft is clamped onto the input shaft of the steering box with a 13mm bolt, so make sure you loosen that before you unbolt the box from the frame rail.
The first order of business was pulling the pitman arm. Since this was the first time pulling the pitman arm or removing the steering box, I made sure to soak everything down with PB Blaster a day ahead of time. The pitman arm popped off without too much trouble, but I've definitely broken my fair share of pitman arm pullers working on other Jeeps.
Either my pump or my reservior has been leaking just slightly for quite some time now, so I decided I'd go ahead an pull the whole assembly out and clean it and inspect it since I was going to be in there anyway. There are about 7 bolts holding the steering pump and bracket to the motor, and they're a fun mix of 13mm and 9/16". Once I got the pump unbolted, I used a small bolt to just hold it up in place while I went to work on the steering box. You'll have to remove the auxillary fan before you can start to unbolt the steering pump.
The two lines connecting to the box take an 18mm wrench, and if you've got a stubby wrench, that would certainly come in handy. You could probably go ahead and unbotl the box from the body before removing the PS lines, but I figured it'd be just as easy to go ahead and remove the lines while the box was still bolted up. The front line is the high-pressure feed line, and the rear line is the return line to the reservior. I had to unbolt the front line and move it out of the way before I could undo the return line.
Since the reservoir was still full, I used a pair of visegrips to clamp off the line while I removed it from the box, that way I'd have a bit more control over the fluid draining out.
Once I got the lines unhooked from the box and the reservior drained, I pulled the pump assembly out and set it aside to deal with later (I may end up just going ahead and replacing the pump since I've got it out and it's got a little over 100K miles on it).
The steering shaft is clamped onto the input shaft of the steering box with a 13mm bolt, so make sure you loosen that before you unbolt the box from the frame rail.
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