- Location
- Nashville, TN
I'll pipe in since I just changed my box on my 2001.
First, plan on ordering a new brace for the box. The one I had in mine was cracked. A beefy replacement was like $35 from JCR. Money well spent
I did go with the Durango upgrade. Really can't tell a lot of difference, but six of one, half dozen of the other, might as well go with the bigger box. Get it from a 1999 V8 Durango. I ordered mine from Advance Auto Parts on line. They had some coupon codes for 25 or 30% off with free shipping. The core was $110, but once I returned my old box and got the 30% off, I paid right around $140ish. The box I got from Advance was a reman.
I pulled my box off with the pitman arm still attached. I used an air ratchet to pull the nut off (32, 33, 34mm somewhere in there) and then used some PB blaster and small plumbers propane torch to heat it up. Rented the Pitman Arm Puller from Advance also and had the arm off in about 10 minutes. I would have removed it while still mounted, but I didn't have the puller kit on hand.
If you go with the Durango box, you need to space out the box about 1/4 inch. I used 2 nuts on each of the 3 bolt holes. Again, I used the JCR brace. I JB Welded the nuts onto the JCR brace so I didn't have to worry about putting them onto the bolt between the brace and box. The box is heavy, shipped weight was 28 lbs, so you want to make it as easy as possible.
Once the new box was in place, the intermediate shaft just slid right on and bolted into place and the pitman arm slid right up. The arm is grooved to slide property onto the "bolt" on the bottom of the box. Pretty hard to mess it up. Once everything was tighted up on the box, the pitman arm, and the steering shaft, I had to move my tie rod end to line up with the pitman arm.
After all that was buttoned up, just replace the lines, bleed the system, and then take it to get aligned.
ONE WORD OF WARNING....before you start to unbolt anything, move the drivers seat all the way up, wrap the seat belt around the bottom of the steering wheel so it can't move and then buckle it. You DO NOT want your steering wheel moving freely while you do this swap.
It was a very easy modification and didn't require any fooling around with the box. It came centered and I just never touched the setting.
First, plan on ordering a new brace for the box. The one I had in mine was cracked. A beefy replacement was like $35 from JCR. Money well spent
I did go with the Durango upgrade. Really can't tell a lot of difference, but six of one, half dozen of the other, might as well go with the bigger box. Get it from a 1999 V8 Durango. I ordered mine from Advance Auto Parts on line. They had some coupon codes for 25 or 30% off with free shipping. The core was $110, but once I returned my old box and got the 30% off, I paid right around $140ish. The box I got from Advance was a reman.
I pulled my box off with the pitman arm still attached. I used an air ratchet to pull the nut off (32, 33, 34mm somewhere in there) and then used some PB blaster and small plumbers propane torch to heat it up. Rented the Pitman Arm Puller from Advance also and had the arm off in about 10 minutes. I would have removed it while still mounted, but I didn't have the puller kit on hand.
If you go with the Durango box, you need to space out the box about 1/4 inch. I used 2 nuts on each of the 3 bolt holes. Again, I used the JCR brace. I JB Welded the nuts onto the JCR brace so I didn't have to worry about putting them onto the bolt between the brace and box. The box is heavy, shipped weight was 28 lbs, so you want to make it as easy as possible.
Once the new box was in place, the intermediate shaft just slid right on and bolted into place and the pitman arm slid right up. The arm is grooved to slide property onto the "bolt" on the bottom of the box. Pretty hard to mess it up. Once everything was tighted up on the box, the pitman arm, and the steering shaft, I had to move my tie rod end to line up with the pitman arm.
After all that was buttoned up, just replace the lines, bleed the system, and then take it to get aligned.
ONE WORD OF WARNING....before you start to unbolt anything, move the drivers seat all the way up, wrap the seat belt around the bottom of the steering wheel so it can't move and then buckle it. You DO NOT want your steering wheel moving freely while you do this swap.
It was a very easy modification and didn't require any fooling around with the box. It came centered and I just never touched the setting.
