leaking steering box

[TOOLPUSHER]

2008 jk 4door ,35 tires

Went to big bear on sat an did gold Mt and john bull trail and my steering box started to leak. The leak looks like it is coming out the bottom where the pittman arm is ...

1st off should i rebuild this one or exchange?

2nd is there a beefer one that will bolt on with out breaking the bank?

3 thought is do it right the first time

Thanks Allen

[aw12345]

Not to sound like a jerk, but do some searching, it's a common problem and atleast one company sells a improved product.
Cannot remember who, but it's out there. The story goes that the pitman arm is to short/ not enough bearing surface to properly support the load placed up on it with bigger tires.

This seems to be one of the fixes that do help this problem


http://store.jksmfg.com/merchant2/me...Steering_Brake

[TOOLPUSHER]

ok thanks for the link. Do you know of anyone who use this on there jeep? An is there any other products that I should avoid? An would a rebuild be a good path to go down ? Or is this the best solution?

[aw12345]

Seems to me it's a viable fix it puts an additional bearing where the pitman arm nut is. So adding an additional bearing where most of the load occurs is a good thing. From what I read the steering gear isn't rebuildable. Don't know if yours has play on the sector shaft ( the shaft that comes out of the steering box where the pitman arm attaches) If there is no play at all you could try to put a seal kit in it.
A steering gear which is ported for a hydro assist ram wouldn't be a bad idea either if you end up replacing it. A ram would take some of the load of the steering box