This is fairly well off-topic, but it’s what I’m dealing with this week. Saginaw steering gear boxes have been used in GM, Chevy, AMC, International cars and trucks for 30+ years. I understand they still are, but possibly made by Delphi now. I can find Saginaw 800 series boxes online all day for around 500 bucks. I can find seal kits at Napa. Why can I not find any hard parts? There’s alot of moving parts in those boxes, but nobody sells them. I can find one guy who sells retail hard parts for manual boxes, but zippo for power boxes. Why is that? People are rebuilding them, where are they getting the parts? I feel like I just stepped into a mafia-controlled environment or something like that. It’s just weird.
Actually there are not that many people rebuilding steering gears because of liability. Unless a test stand is available to check it out after a rebuild it's taking a chance. Especially with a commercial vehicle.
Either there’s a lot of companies rebuilding em, or one guy who gets all the business. Google “Saginaw 800 steering box” and you’ll see 20 of em right on the first page. That was more or less my point, there’s so many out there, but I can’t get parts. It’s just bizarre.
More than likely rebuilt by Cardone-For those style boxes I used {Red Head}.
They list a few parts for 800 here. Autotmotive & Light Truck Steering Gear Misc. Parts
Never have rebuilt a Saginaw for a large truck but several on automobiles. Have rebuilt many Ross HF-64 series but been years. TRW has now deleted a lot of the parts that were readily available so I now send them out to "Rebuilder's Enterprises" in Chicagoland and the same with air compressors. They can get the units rebuilt and back to me faster than I can get parts in most times.
My reason for not sending a nice unit to get rebuilt, is because they don't handle parts like an aircraft part. They beat on em, scratch em up, bang em around, pry on em and basically don't give a crap. I do its the OCD.
I understand your analogy for certain as I worked under those conditions of duress often with anything aviation related. However, these steering gears are quite precise in construction internally. While you may rebuild something on the bench, (as we all have) you don't have the test equipment to full function test the unit once rebuilt. The internal spool only moves about .090" before offering hydraulic assist in the desired direction of the steering linkage. Wear in the balls, and ball screw and other basic working parts are ground, honed, and polished to offer very little "slop", and leakage which is used for internal lubrication. Leakage out of the tolerance limit negatively impacts the unit's ability to do it's job; especially long term. Wear in the sector mesh which is adjusted for over center drag must be accurate and have range or service life will be short. Too tight and return to center isn't what it should be. Too loose and you have a plethora of problems ready to present themselves. Loose and sloppy steering being the least of it. Many don't understand the purpose of the unloader valves installed into these things or their importance in the system. Hope I'm not preaching to the choir but these are a safety related item to top it off. I've not had anything come back banged up, or abused from the vendor I mentioned. I've both driven parts up there, and UPS shipment. They are quick and quite good in my experience. Friendly and helpful on the phone too. They usually rebuild what I send up but do offer reman units off the shelf.
I'm talking about the old manual stuff for classic trucks. I should have mentioned that. Many years ago, 30 or so, I did get a rebuild done on a Mopar manual steering gear from a highly recommended outfit. It was as loose as can be with in a month or so. I was not going to R and R it again, since the wife at that time needed it. Just made attempts to tighten it. I bet they never replaced more than the seals.
I found one guy with the shaft I need, in MO. It's even used. I asked him about a new part, and why they're so hard to find. He said the demand for them is very low, even for his shop (Midwest Steering). My guess is, maybe they were built so well, that there is just not much need for the hard parts. Add to that the huge supply of junkyard boxes that are out there? They're not being sold as new, the ones I found are remans, Maybe these shops are just taking in junkyard boxes, and out of, say, each 5 they bring in, they can put together 2 good ones. Just a guess. The one thing I can say for sure, is those damn things are much more complex than they seem. Saginaw packed alot of technology into that tiny box. Here's to hoping I haven't borked it all to hell
" I loved a girl, in Saginaw Michigan"
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I got the part I needed from a shop in MO. I’m all set. Thanks though!
I've dealt with the steering supplier below for Saginaw steering parts for my forklifts, and found them excellent to deal with and they had very reasonable pricing. But they appear to do only off-road steering equipment. This company were so good, they supplied a full repair kit for a Saginaw in my old Clark forklift - and after I received it, they emailed me and apologised, that they had suddenly realised they'd supplied an incorrect steering sector shaft. They sent me the correct one, free of charge - and told me to keep the incorrect one! Can't get much better service than that! Shop www.midweststeering.com
It makes sense that only approved shops should work on over the road steering boxes. They aren't something that should be repaired good enough because of liability issues. Having a test bench makes sense. It is illegal to do any welding on any steering components as well. Welding on brake parts is illegal too but people can do their own brake jobs.
That’s who I got my sector shaft from.