Broken Steering box. Cheap Upgrade?

Last night out in the middle of nowhere I snapped the shaft coming out the steering box that the pitman arm bolts to. I believe this is called the sector shaft and it busted right off. I have never seen this happen before, is it very common? I don't want it to happen again, my Jeep is not a trailer queen but it is not my daily driver. I liked the box I had on to, it was off a ZJ and was variable ratio.:bawl:
So I am woundering if there are any boxes out there with bigger shafts that I can pull off a truck at the junk yard. I am not buying a new box as they are hundreds of dollars, I can get a box from the wrecking yard for 50-100 dollars.
I know I can get a durango box or J2000 box to make it turn easier but is the sector shaft any stronger? I am on 33 BFG's, 6.5inch lift, ARB lockerfront, and have a ZJ pitman arm which provides almost an inch of drop over the XJ pitman arm. I have a right hand drive draglink at home and flipserts to bring the steering above theknuckles, and am currently running Rustys beffy tierod. Any help or info greatly appriciated!! Josh

Pretty sure you can use one out of a Durango....?

EDIT: Oh and the best bet is a YJ box...it has 4 bolts to hold it to the frame rail

The 4 bolts would be nice. It looks like the J2000 box is the way to go, does anyone know if teh sector shaft is stronger?

That break is uncommon enough not to worry about it for the most part?

J2000?

JNickel101 said:

J2000?

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I have heard that the steering box off of a Jeep Gladiator truck is a great upgrade but cant find much info. I cant remember if it is a J 2000 or J 20 though.

jeepboy381 said:

I have heard that the steering box off of a Jeep Gladiator truck is a great upgrade but cant find much info. I cant remember if it is a J 2000 or J 20 though.

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There was j200, j2000, j300, j3000

Based on class and wheelbase.

I am now leaning twords teh 87 steering box for teh YJ wrangler, I believe it to be the same box as the J 2000. It is a 4 bolt box also so I can make some sort of bracket to catch teh 4th bolt. Does anyone else have info on this? Thanks

foster auto parts had durango boxes for like 100 bucks.

I just bought a 87 YJ Wrangler box for $150. It is remanufactured and has a lifetime warrenty. I will post up what I make to mount the 4th bolt on the box when I get to it.

jeepboy381 said:

I just bought a 87 YJ Wrangler box for $150. It is remanufactured and has a lifetime warrenty. I will post up what I make to mount the 4th bolt on the box when I get to it.

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I don't think the other 3 are going to simply line up...not sure though.

Based on the TNT kit, It's hard to say which holes they're re-using
http://tntcustoms.com/webV5/xj4boltsteering.asp

The holes should line up perfect. The 4 bolt boxes are the same with a extra mounting tab. I honestly don't know why they all wouldn't be 4 bolt boxes, three bolts is weak and stupid on a unibody.

jeepboy381 said:

The holes should line up perfect. The 4 bolt boxes are the same with a extra mounting tab. I honestly don't know why they all wouldn't be 4 bolt boxes, three bolts is weak and stupid on a unibody.

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But it's cheaper!

Honestly with a good set of inner and outer brace plates, 3 mounting points is plenty strong for a unibody turning 33-35's

The thing is lots of people have reinforced the unibody there and just had the three mounts break off the box itself. I didn't like not being able to turn as I was pulled down the hill back to my friends house for an hour. 4 bolts with reinforcment and some nice OTK should help out alot. Thanks for the info though Jason, I wish that TNT kit was cheaper. $150 is way to steep for that, I will build my own!

if u want to stay with the three bolt configuration, check out c-roks steering box reinforcement plate, and psc steering has a performance box very close to the price of a stock unit