• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

I have 15 dark balls, but only 10 light balls...

Bjorn86

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Montrose, CO
I'm in the process of tapping my steering box for hydro assist on my 99 XJ w/the 4.0. Upon disassembly, I gathered up all of the ball bearings (I was extremely anal about making sure they were contained and that none were lost). I ended up with 15 dark balls, but only 10 silver balls. I should mention that this is a Lares rebuild purchased from Rock Auto about 6 months ago and the first time I've ever opened it up.

My question is - how would you proceed? I can think of a couple of options:

1. Alternate light/dark until I run out of light balls and just install the remaining black balls in one group.

2. As above, but when I run out of light balls, stop. This would leave me running 20 balls total (the remaining 5 black balls left uninstalled).

3. Alternate 1 light with 2 dark until they are all in to avoid a big group of similar color/size balls.

4. Purchase more light balls and alternate as they should be (preferred). Only problem is I can't find anyone that sells them. If you can't point me in the right direction - problem solved.

I've never worked on the internals of a steering box. After watching a bunch of YouTube videos and reading write-ups I was pretty darn confident. This sure has thrown me off. Any input is appreciated!
 
If I remember correctly from doing mine a few months ago there was only 21 balls in my box but I know it was 1 less than what was specified you were supposed to have according to the pirate 4x4 write up. If you are 100% sure all those balls came out of the box then I'd try mikeing the balls and see if one of the dark balls was actually the same size as the silver one and treat it as such if you find any. Otherwise I might alternate rather than lumping them all together. I'd also check with other write ups and make sure you don't have extra balls there and it was rebuilt incorrectly by rock auto.
 
I rebuilt my Durango box a few months ago and couldn't separate them by color and had to use a micrometer. If it turns out you have an uneven number still, use option three. I used a five part youtube video.

There were a couple of other things that came up also. The sector shaft bearing/seal assembly was completely different but still fit and functioned and I wasn't able to use grease to keep the balls in place and ended up machining a plastic bar that holds all the balls in the galley when doing the final assembly. It all went together fine using a westtexasoffroad rebuild kit. These guys know their stuff.
 
Well I re-read the pirate write up and they said 24 balls should be in there and the 4wheeler write up said 26 so your 25 is right between them. I couldnt find any of the pics I took while mine was pulled apart so I couldnt verify how many I had. I did use a little petroluem grease to hold them in during reinstall. I got my rebuild kit on Amazon.
 
Well I re-read the pirate write up and they said 24 balls should be in there and the 4wheeler write up said 26 so your 25 is right between them. I couldnt find any of the pics I took while mine was pulled apart so I couldnt verify how many I had. I did use a little petroluem grease to hold them in during reinstall. I got my rebuild kit on Amazon.

I just looked at those two write-ups as well. I did notice that the Four-wheeler write up says they counted 26, but counting the balls in their picture, there are only 24 shown (maybe a typo?).

My plan is to borrow a mic from a buddy and see where I'm at after that. I don't plan on putting all 25 back in, if I have 12 of each, I'll go with 24.
 
Update:

I got the mic and measured. All the light silver measure at .281 and 14 of the 15 dark measured at .280 and the last one measured .279.

If I run 24, I'll just leave out that oddball and alternate 1:1 with a couple spots getting 1 light:2 dark.

Or, I'm considering just using 20 and alternating them as I should.

I can't find anyone that sells these bearings. I found some for older Jeeps, but they didn't specify the OD of them. At this point, I'm trying to choose the lesser of two evils and see what happens. If worked fine prior to tearing it down, so I'm going to give it a whirl.

Opinions?
 
Back
Top