The dreaded steering box crack has struck...

Hello everyone, long time no see. Life is busy!

Well it finally happened to me, my 90 finally busted behind the steering box and you all know right where. Apparently the TSB for the rivet was never done and the rivet where the 3 sections meet have begun to seperate causing flex and the crack. Mine broke a chunk about 1"x2" directly at the crease bent around the engine crossmember and around that further most inward bolt. Unfortunately, because it's flexing so much it cracked the rail itself behind the shock tower. From what I can see before I tear it apart is that I believe it extends from the bottom to the square hole just behind the tower and no further. The truck has since been parked.

Tonight I ordered a new set of shock towers, rear mounts and hardware (Ebay has a deal for $90 right now. Get all 4). My plan is to get the tower and box off and assess the damage. I'd been hearing some noise but didn't make it in time. Luckily there is a factory brace in the boxed section of the frame...if that hadn't been there I'd probably have rolled the truck. So I am thinking about making tubes that the bolts go through in between the boxed section. It looks like I'm going to have fun cutting the welds and knocking the rivets out with the truck still together...

I sourced a front horn from a 96 that the inside piece looks the same and is solid so I've been taking that apart in hopes I can reuse it. I plan on making some tubular gussets to go in-between the boxed section, ordering a Blue Top box and then buying longer bolts so I can nut the box from the back side. The frame horn I cut out had a 1/4" thick plate made to the bends of the outside of the frame rail to support a snow plow that I saved to brace the outside with. I plan on getting a 3x3 piece of square stock and bolting that into the front frame horns to eliminate anymore chance of flexing as apparently the bumper and sway bar cross member didn't do enough.

Once this is taken care of I did source a 1977 Dana 44 for a straight axle swap...as nice as my TTB rides I think it's time since I'll be in there.....on the flip side I did just pick up a new fuel tank for it and rebuilt the front brakes, new stainless braided hoses and a couple nycop lines.



Pics coming as I get in there. Here's one of the inside. Hard to see rhe chunk missing. Outside crack not shown. You can also see the rather large gap between where the 3 sections meet at the rivet.

 


This picture below shows in red circled where rhe chunk is completely missing. Never have I ever seen one do it quite like this.



I also shamlessely painted my wheels 2 tone...




So hopefully I'm not in over my head but it's gotta get fixed sooner than later....

Bummer Angelo!  

I'm confident in your ability to fix this, and fix it right.
Sounds like a complete front end upgrade.  👍
I'm not too familiar with the solid D44 swap. Mostly see D60 SAS in leaf sprung trucks.

But I'm subscribed to tag along on this adventure.  😉

Yes, that's a bummer.  I've not seen one crack a chunk out.  Wow!

But that was a very poor design.  If I understand correctly you are going to weld tubes in the holes that the bolts pass through and space the box off the frame by having the tubes sit proud of the frame by maybe 1/8".  Right?  If so, that is a huge help.  The problem with the original design is that it puts the hard/sharp edge of the box right against the frame.  So that concentrates all of the force right at the edge and the frame cracks.

But getting the box off the frame puts the stress on the three round tubes.  That cuts the stress by a factor of 3.  And the round holes don't concentrate stress at a single point.

Radiusing the back of the box would probably accomplish the same thing, without messing up the entire steering geometry.

I ended up just grabbing a Napa box today just to have one. The idea is to replace that section that's welded/riveted on the inside of the rail with a new one and put the tubes in between the inner and outer rail for the bolts to pass through and then brace rhe front horns together. It looks like the factory did some thing like that in between the 3 mounting bolts which is why it didnt collapse in on itself fortunately.  But I agree I have never seen one actually bust a chunk out of it. I had heard intermittent popping at, you guessed it, low speeds/not moving but chalked it up to a bad drag link. I guess I found it....

Either way I'm sourcing parts. I'm hoping it'll be a weekend fix but it's going to be a bear getting it done I feel.

I wish the service kits were still available. Ford knew it was a problem as far back as 1984. I can't really say I'm surprised with as common as it is on these trucks. As soon as I could barely steer I knew something was very wrong. When you pull into the parking lot and the wheel has made 1.5 revolutions and you are still going straight there is an issue...


Either way as far as the axle swap goes I plan on probably just getting the truck mobile as the axle needs a full tear down and rebuild but for free I couldn't say now. Eventually I want to 8 lug swap the truck, I already have rear springs for it and just would have to change the outers on the front axle so it'd be kind of nifty seeing an 8 lug coil sprung F150.

Angelo Voltura wrote

When you pull into the parking lot and the wheel has made 1.5 revolutions and you are still going straight there is an issue...

Yikes!  That is "an issue"!!!

Gary Lewis wrote

Angelo Voltura wrote

When you pull into the parking lot and the wheel has made 1.5 revolutions and you are still going straight there is an issue...

Yikes!  That is "an issue"!!!

The drivers side frame horn actually was twisting enough that the edge of the pitman arm has made contact with the engine crossmember at one point or another.

From what I can see I don't believe the crack on the outside of the rail has made it to the top yet.

You got that front axle free?!?  Those go for good money around here, I was happy to get mine for a few hundred, I had to pull it, and it needs completely rebuilt.  I have so many things in the queue for my life right now that I'm not sure when I'll get to the SAS, but I have 90% of the parts, so it's just working my way up to it.

Now I want to go out and look my frame over with all of this cracking talk.  

85pig wrote

You got that front axle free?!?  Those go for good money around here, I was happy to get mine for a few hundred, I had to pull it, and it needs completely rebuilt.  I have so many things in the queue for my life right now that I'm not sure when I'll get to the SAS, but I have 90% of the parts, so it's just working my way up to it.

Now I want to go out and look my frame over with all of this cracking talk.

Yes my buddy and I part out 73-79 trucks on the regular. He bought a 77 plow truck for a couple hundred bucks that we gutted and sold off everything good on and then scrapped it and then gave me the front end out of it. It needs to be totally gone through and the radius arm studs are rotted through but it didn't cost me anything.

I would check your frame. It's common enough that it happens on stock trucks too.

Yes, it happens on stock trucks.  Dad's truck had never been abused but its frame was cracked and the huck bolt was loose.  Big Blue's frame wasn't cracked but the huck bolt was loose and there was movement that would have led to cracking.

Went out and briefly looked at mine, but I don't really see anything.  Is the crack going to be easily visible?  

Funny about those radius arms; I've got two pair, both rust pitted under the frame mount bushing areas.  One set is not bad, the other is pretty rough (hourglass shaped).  Going to run the "not bad" set, though both of mine came from Broncos, and I need to bolt the shock mount to one of them. My D44 came from a Bronco "mud truck", so it was well worn and abused.  Going to put all new guts in it.  Have a new set of 3.54 gears I got cheap, but not sure I want to mix the 3.50 rear with them.  My old 72 Bronco had that gear split from the factory, but I'd still rather stay 3.50/3.50 if I can.

The crack isn't always easily visible.  I had Dad's truck on the lift and took a pic after pulling the steering box off.  The pic was from the front towards the rear kind of down the driver's side frame on the inside using the flash.  I put the pic on the monitor of the shop computer and saw the crack.  Went back to the truck and couldn't find it.  Used a light from the front and there it was.  The light caused a shadow at the crack, just like the flash had done.

In that case the crack was at the back edge of the bottom rear mounting flange.  The hard edge of the box concentrated the forces right there and eventually cracked the frame.

So I guess if or until the steering gets loose from the frame flexing, one likely won't know.  I don't seem to have any problems with that, thankfully.  Whenever I finally get to the front axle swap, I'll likely use the "Brocoair" track bar bracket which basically gussets the frame to the crossmember.  Reading a little some think that will help with the issue to some degree, but I'd still like to nip it in the bud before a problem arises.  If Ford performed the TSB on this issue, the rivet you can see from below should be a bolt/lock nut?  Mine is a rivet, so if that's the case, it never got addressed by Ford.  I really have no desire (or time) to pull the steering box to look, so it's going to be something that sneaks up on me, I'm afraid.  

Update.

Today I pulled it in the shop to replace my rear tank that had a leak as I decided to fix a fuel leak before welding anything in the front. Turns out the pump was wrong so I emergency ordered a Delphi pump that will be here tomorrow. Someone had been in there as the lines were nylon and my return had a small crack which was where the leak was but the tank is old and crusty so I figured change it anyway.

I got the tank out and my boss pointed out the leaf springs are broke....good thing I have a set of F250 springs to put in so I can get rid of the stacked blocks. I knew they were old and worn out but hadn't noticed this yet.

My shock towers got delivered to the house today so I'll be getting going on the frame fix here soon.

Progress is Gooood!  

While under my truck the other day I noticed my 'Brand New' rear tank is all stoved in.
I was jacking on the pumpkin a week back and the jack wouldn't roll because it sank into my brother's hot driveway.
Of course the cradle comes back as it rises, and the front wheels were chocked.....

I was behind the bumper because I needed all the leverage I could get, and didn't notice until it fell right off!
I -also- didn't notice the spare shaped dent in the tank! For obvious reasons....

Anyway, I'm glad the springs were pointed out to you, and you have a real set so you can do away with jankey riser blocks.  

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Progress is Gooood!  

While under my truck the other day I noticed my 'Brand New' rear tank is all stoved in.
I was jacking on the pumpkin a week back and the jack wouldn't roll because it sank into my brother's hot driveway.
Of course the cradle comes back as it rises, and the front wheels were chocked.....

I was behind the bumper because I needed all the leverage I could get, and didn't notice until it fell right off!
I -also- didn't notice the spare shaped dent in the tank! For obvious reasons....

Anyway, I'm glad the springs were pointed out to you, and you have a real set so you can do away with jankey riser blocks.  

I have them stacked right now (total of 5 inches) with a stud through them but I'd like to just use the 3" angled blocks for pinion angle and the springs. I figure the 3/4 ton springs should make up the 2 inches difference taking the top one out, and sit like a 350 which is about where I want it anyway.

I ordered rear shackles tonight and planning on getting hardware, so I'm going to add putting them on to my list of crap to do along with a reseal of the rear end as the pinion and axle seals are leaking. This was all stuff I had planned anyway but now I have motivation to do it.

Never ending battle it seams...

Finished up putting the new tank in today with new fuel line ends and a Delphi pump. No more fuel leak. I was tired of smelling it....now I can weld on it without worrying about blowing myself up.

TWO steps forward!  

Pulled the rear end apart and got the leaky seal changed, found out the wheel cylinder I put in last year seized...woohoo. Replaced a wheel stud then as luck would have it stripped the new nut on it...hahaha what a day.

Progress!!

Two steps forward and one backward is still progress.