I wish I had known about it sooner. It made a very noticeable difference in how the truck steers, it's much easier to turn my 35's now. Also replaced the seal on the sector shaft and flushed out all of the ATF +4 with actual power steering fluid. I'm also going to adjust the over-center screw as per the TSB to see if I can take up the minor amount of play I have. 

Glad to hear it worked well for you!  It does make a substantial difference.

I'm keeping this truck for the long haul so anything I can do to improve it is worth the time and effort. 

What is this steering mod that you did? Seems I might have missed that one.

http://articles.mopar1973man.com/2nd-generation-12v-dodge-cummins/70-steering-and-suspension/502-hotrod-ps-pump

Interesting. Anyone have a write up on replacing the sector shady seal? I've got a weep on mine I'd love to fix.

 

Also running AT4 +4 in my system. The factory fill on my truck was plain power steering but a month later production truck would have been filled with ATF+4. If you have 4 wheel disc your factory fill is ATF+4.

Edited November 26, 201510 yr by Vais01

39 minutes ago, Vais01 said:

Interesting. Anyone have a write up on replacing the sector shady seal? I've got a weep on mine I'd love to fix.

 

Also running AT4 +4 in my system. The factory fill on my truck was plain power steering but a month later production truck would have been filled with ATF+4. If you have 4 wheel disc your factory fill is ATF+4.

Holy crap.   What?  In the morning, I am going to go dig through some manuals.  I thought that was a 3rd gen only thing. 

I have always used PS fluid in mine and according to the attached it could be read that they came with both. It shows 98 - 02 with PS and 02 -04 with ATF. I am assuming the 02 overlap is because of the 2nd and 3rd gen overlap that year.http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2003/19-005-03.htm Not sure however. It seems that folks are having good luck with both. 

http://www.dieseltrucksite.com/showthread.php?t=1116

 

Sometimes just adjusting the gear box fixes the leak.

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1997/19-10-97.htm

 

And this is what I have for fluid requirements.

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2001/19-007-01.htm

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2003/19-005-03.htm

 

Edited November 26, 201510 yr by Cowboy

As for the sector shaft seal just order a gear box seal kit at your local NAPA store. I've rebuilt plenty of steering boxes and not really all that hard to do a seal kit. When it comes to the 20 some odd BB's around the worm gear I've got a way of handling that too.

I already replaced the seal, the old one had a sloppy fit and was completely wore out. I'm eventually going to do a rebuild, would you mind sharing your way of dealing with the BB's? 

When you take it apart what will happen is the inner screw will most likely come out and 22 or so BB's will come out inside the rack. As for reassembly. I typically I set up so the screw is inside the rack and one at a time feed the BB's inside. Be careful with moving the screw shaft that if you move it to far the BB's unscrew into the inside of the rack. The last 2-4 will be left laying in the half tube. Then carefully place the other half of the tube on and put the clamp back on.

Also here's a thread that has a little bit of extra details in it.

http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/94-98-non-powertrain/1569714-steering-gear-how-many-balls.html

Yea. That what you need to do. Much better than all these wild upgrades, changing boxes, braces, etc. Funny I remember the number of BB's. The last rebuild I've done was on a 1970 Ford F250 pickup. I reman'ed a friends gearbox and fixed his issues of hard steering and leaks. Goes to show this old style technology still works today just fine. What I like about out steering boxes is that they are adjustable and seal kits are cheap and plentiful. Now if you upgrade away from the OE box now you lose the bonuses.

Edited December 1, 201510 yr by Mopar1973Man

Great write up Cowboy! 

@Mopar1973Man

I see people upgrading their gears because the stock ones are "wearing out too fast". That's normally caused by poor steering linkage geometry from a lift and large tires. I had a buddy with an 02' Ram 2500, 18" of lift, and 44" boggers. He kept trashing gear boxes until he added a ram assist and a custom built tie rod with heim joints, after that he never had an issue.  

Edited December 1, 201510 yr by The_Hammer

Again you can't expect a stock OE box to handle the leverage load of 44" tires. Just foolish. For something like this YES! You need to drop away from the Dodge Stock box and move up to something stronger. Now a Common Joe should not have to upgrade to Redhead or other gear boxes with a Pavement Queen truck and stockish sized tires. Once you start levelling, lifting, over-sizing tires all bets are off on a stock gear box.

Then again there is a different between a Working Man's Rig and Weekend Warrior Rig. Two different applications with two different needs.

Edited December 3, 201510 yr by Mopar1973Man

I don't do any serious off-roading with my truck, especially since there really aren't any places to go around here. I drive a mix of payment and gravel, the roughest stuff is down at Matagorda with 20+ miles of shoreline to drive on. It gets pretty bad at times, wash outs and dunes. 

One thing I'm really liking about about the 315/75/R16 Goodyear Duratracs I'm running is that they balance out VERY well, just as good as a stock size tire. I had some 37x12.50R16.5 Goodyear OZs on while I was saving up for some 16" rims and the Duratracs. Those things balanced like complete **** and shook the whole damn truck, I couldn't wait to get them off. They were cheap though ($250 for the set) and got me to work and back though. I can only imagine how fast they would destroy all the steering components if left on the truck. 

Has this mod been deleted from the articles section?

12V section. I'm pretty sure its authored by Cowboy.