Do I have a bad BlueTop ??

I have been fighting steering play since we bought this 1986 F250 2wd. Finally I installed a BlueTop steering box, thinking it would fix it. Ryan at BlueTop is a pleasure to deal with, he actually - gasp - answers the phone when we call. Previously, the truck had play in the steering, and I could see the sector shaft had axial play. It was a cheap rebuilt box, so I put in a quality remachined rebuild from BlueTop.

Steering was still suboptimal, and I saw movement on the TTB arms, so my son's shop replaced the radius arm bushings and swing arm bushings. I put on all new tires, junking the Walmart tires suitable only for the shooting berm. To preserve the new tires, the tire store replaced the drag link and tie rod with new parts, and aligned her up.

By now, steering should be great, right?  Not.  Still tight, as if it had a double steering shock setup. It doesn't. It's a 2wd. So I zeroed in on the steering knuckles aka kingpins.  A couple zercs would not take grease.

Today we resolved that.  We hung the truck by the frame rails and removed the tires to get at the kingpins easily. All 4 kingpin zercs now take grease. In moving the steering back and forth, 3 symptoms occured that make me wonder if the BlueTop is bad.

1) Type F was ejected forcefully from the PS reservoir. A lot. Should all that Type F get forced out? I did the same on our CVPI recently and no ATF was forced out.

2) Steering feels tight, even with the frontend hanging. Shouldn't the steering cycle easily while hanging in the air?

3) There's an audible click from the steering box, near lock. I confirmed that it's at the steering box with a stethoscope. It is hard to explain. It's also visible in a jerky motion of the Pitman when the box clicks.

Are any of those symptoms normal?  Here's a video of the fun leak.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/fkombGQRLJL2/
And a couple pics.

RenoHuskerDu wrote

1) Type F was ejected forcefully from the PS reservoir. A lot. Should all that Type F get forced out? I did the same on our CVPI recently and no ATF was forced out.

This is normal, or it least it has been with my truck on both a Napa reman steering box and a RedHead steering box. If you turn them lock to lock with the engine off, they will barf fluid out through the fill cap.

I can't help with the tightness or the click, sorry. My truck has balljoints, and I seem to recall it turning relatively easy with the wheels in the air.
Even my Redhead box wasn't as tight as I'd like it to be. It's OK, and it was an improvement, but it seems to have gotten a little bit sloppy with use. The first while it felt pretty good, but I think now that it's broken in it has a little more play than it had when freshly rebuilt.

First, Ford's C2 power steering pump is notorious for two things - a whine and barfing P/S fluid if you turn the wheels w/o having the engine running.  So I would have been surprised if you didn't have fluid everywhere.

(Technically, I don't know that it is really the pump's fault.  I proved a day or two ago that moving the Pitman arm will eject P/S fluid from the steering box, and if you don't have hoses on it the fluid makes a MESS.  So, maybe the C2 pump just wasn't designed to handle a large quantity of fluid when the wheels are turned.  But I'm told the Saginaw does.  I should find out soonish.)

But I wouldn't expect the steering to feel tight with the wheels in the air.  I've not driven Dad's truck since I installed all new ball joints, tie rods, bushings, and the new RedHead box.  And that thing is smooth and free, lock to lock.

As for the box itself, you may have a bad one.  I would not expect it to click, ever, nor would I expect that the Pitman arm would jerk.  So I'd call Ryan and tell him what's up and get his opinion.  And tell him we are all watching.  

Im about to tackle a front end rebuild also, unless I figure out a 1999-2006 tahoe chassis would fit under a flareside bullnose.

Ok, two items, king pins are never as free moving as ball joints and front end alignment on a Twin I-beam front end with king pins is interesting to say the least. There is a rather involved set of measurement criteria, front and rear suspension height both need to be checked and the frame angle in relation to the ground or alignment rack. These have to be entered into the fancy computer alignment machines. This is because both caster and camber change as the I-beams "stroke" up and down.

The last piece of the puzzle is correcting and errors, the only real certain way is to bend the beams. Properly done it will last very well, Darth's last full alignment was 25 years ago, not long after I got him. My front tyres wear perfectly even and will have been on him 5 years in December.

That being said, even at best these trucks will wander a bit, Darth requires you to stay alert as he will drift away from the road crown.

My wander in the TTB was 2-things, The actual crossmember would wiggle on the frame with the PS pump turning the tires (Thanks to Gary for that item to look at) bolted and welded a brace so the crossmember wont move, and Since I have new HD front springs, it lifted the front end about 1.5"
No shop could get the front end in spec. But one shop "ran into this" many times years ago....
Radius arm lowering brackets. Lowered the arms at the frame @1.5", steers good now!

In this lengthy process, I did check that the bolts holding the box to the frame rail were into solid metal, no cracks on the rail. There is an almost imperceptible movement of the box when you steer. Now that you mention it, I plan to get in there and examine the cross member too.

Check out this TSB: http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/97-03-10-frame-creakingpopping.html.  So far almost every truck I've checked has had a loose huck bolt.

Here is Ryan's answer. Makes sense to me. I need to check the frame next. But the truck's not here, my son took it to the shop to vacuum bleed the new brakes. And I promised to send Ryan a vid of the slight axial play at the sector shaft.

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Hello, so to answer the questions.

#1 The steering is going to have resistance with the engine off for sure as you are trying to push fluid around in the system without it being pumped so every time you turn the wheel the piston pushes oil back through all the orifices in the valve back through the hoses and then is trying to pull fluid as well. All this will make hard steering even with the wheels off the ground.

 

#2 If you are turning it off from top dead center either way you will get a clunking noise of the teeth on the shaft against the teeth on the piston. This is normal as the gearbox cannot be tight on the sides. The only place you shouldn’t have that clunking noise or extra movement is when the gearbox is on top dead center or with the wheels straight ahead. From the t.d.c. position you should have an equal amount of turns to each side which will be 4 turns total from lock to lock. Every gearbox old or new will have that loose clunking off to the side. This isn’t anything to worry about as the place we want them tight is on center when we are driving straight down the road.