Steering box ball bearing issues!

I rebuilt my Saginaw steering box in my 99 XJ, or at least I thought I did. When I put the worm gear in, I feed the bearings into the piston and as soon as you turn the gear they spit out the back end of the piston, am I only supposed to feed them into the one side (top side)? Either way they would work their way to the bottom, am I missing a seal that keeps them from spitting out the bottom of the piston?

OK, I'm a bit confused. Are you turning the shaft before you put the two piece ball router on and bolt it down?

You put the balls in and if necessary use a brass round punch and tap them into place until they show at the exit. Make sure you alternate the small and large balls. You then take the ball routers and slather them with grease. You then put the rest of the balls, it think it is normally 6, in the grease and put the ball routers together. You then put the ball router in place and bolt it down with the two 10mm head bolts.

I'm guessing this is my issue, I have the box completely together and I was putting the pitman arm on and they spit out. I think I need to check the balls again, I used a micrometer before and they all were the same size so I must have been wrong, I will check to see if any are too big to come out the bottom end of the piston

If you put the ball router in, it keeps the balls from coming out. You must be pushing them too far before you put the router on. You will need a pretty good mike, they are only .0005 different is size. Some are color coded, but many are not.

Trust me on this. I have built and sold over a hundred boxes.

I trust you. My dad measured before and said they were the same but he didn't measure all of them. I just checked myself and got 7.14mm and 7.16mm... So should I put the bigger ball in first on the bottom side of the piston? Assuming the bigger diameter keeps it from rolling out of the piston

bldeagle10 said:

I trust you. My dad measured before and said they were the same but he didn't measure all of them. I just checked myself and got 7.14mm and 7.16mm... So should I put the bigger ball in first on the bottom side of the piston? Assuming the bigger diameter keeps it from rolling out of the piston

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Let me explain the use for the balls. Like a ball bearing, they make things move more easily. The way they are used in a steering gear is similar to the way they are used in machine equipment. As the steering shaft rotates, the balls recirculate around a loop. That is what the router is for. If you look at the setup, the balls actually replace the teeth that would normally be in a rack and pinion setup. So the balls make a big loop. The "router" takes the balls that exit one end and route them back to the other side of the "gear".

In a correctly built steering gear, there should be an equal number of small balls and large balls. That way, no matter where in the loop you would look, the balls are always alternating large-small-large-small. I always have someone ask, why the two sizes of balls. If all the balls were the same size, there would be to much surface from all the balls, rubbing as they circulate. The small balls are used because they don't carry any of the load, and cause drag, they simply work as spacers. If you don't alternate them you an get a catching sensation as you turn the wheel. Don't confuse that with the catching you will get when the wheels are centered if you get the box adjusted incorrectly. By the way, not adjusting it correctly is VERY dangerous and can lead you to loose the ability to steer at the worst possible time.

The problem is, the balls were coming out of where the worm gear goes into the piston, not the router holes. So literally the bottom side of the piston

Watch this series of youtube videos. I can't remember in which video he explains how to put the ball bearing in, but I used his method and it worked great for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ-89YhvAXU

bldeagle10 said:

The problem is, the balls were coming out of where the worm gear goes into the piston, not the router holes. So literally the bottom side of the piston

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That right, because you pushed them past the router before putting it in.