I am in the middle of replacing the steering box in a 310,000 mile 2000 Excursion 7.3 4x4. We went with the RedHead as I have in my other 2 trucks but I ran onto a rather interesting problem. The 4 blind splines are exactly 45° out of alignment. Yes, I cave them the exact year/month of production. Yes, I have the input centered at 2 out of 4 turns. Yes, the spline count is correct - the pitman slides on and off perfectly and I even tried the pitman off my '03 F-350, same issue. The pitman arms have the blind splines aligned along and across the long axis of the arm. The old box(es) have the blind splines aligned along and across the lengthe of the box when the input is centered. The new redhead heas the blind splines at +/- 45° along the axis.
I have read of 2 other instances of this, but no resoluton was listed. I have isued an e-mail to RedHead and am awaiting their response. In the meantime, I have an Ecursion stuck 1/2 in and 1/2 out of my garage.
Anyone else ever seen this?
If you look closely, the inputs are aligned perfectly between the 2 boxes when centered in the travel. You can see the blind splines are oriented completely differently. The pitman on the old box is off my F-350 and is shown for reference only. The splines are oriented the same between the two arms.
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I have read of 2 other instances of this, but no resoluton was listed. I have isued an e-mail to RedHead and am awaiting their response. In the meantime, I have an Ecursion stuck 1/2 in and 1/2 out of my garage.
Anyone else ever seen this?
If you look closely, the inputs are aligned perfectly between the 2 boxes when centered in the travel. You can see the blind splines are oriented completely differently. The pitman on the old box is off my F-350 and is shown for reference only. The splines are oriented the same between the two arms.
