Last couple of days I have been working on the steering system. I soaked the carrier steering access cover for a week or so and it would not budge. I knew if I tried to turn it too hard the 3/4 hub would split. So I had no choice but to take all the screws out, I figured I was in for a day of drilling and replacing riv nuts. To my surprise they all just turned right out like they were put in yesterday. Now I thought I had it licked but I would pay for my victory.
I took the fill plug out and it looked nice and clean inside so I started filling it with oil, filling, filling ..... I thought man this is taking a lot of oil. I looked underneath and it was just running out around the bottom output shaft. So I took the steering box out, not a bad job at all, and discovered the output shaft was very, very loose like it had no bushings at all and the seal was blown out big time. So now off to the parts carrier, the cover was already off, the one I sent to Tom so that was done. Took the fill plug out and I could see oil, that's good. No sign of leaking underneath so I took it out, not as easy as the first but not bad. No movement on the shaft so I blasted and primed it.
Now while the primer was drying I went to the steering wheel, had a NOS steering column and a recently received 900 series 5 ton wheel. Bill in KY and I were talking about trying it as we liked the looks of the new style wheel. The wheel went right on and it fits perfectly. I had to nip off the end of the original horn wire and the new horn button, spliced the wire together, shrink tube and assemble. Testing with the multi meter and the horn circuit works fine.
A couple of things to note, in an older thread it was asked if the rear box just spun around with no stop. The input shaft rotates 6.5 turns and stops, so be sure to center it when replacing one. I also found a part number on the output seal on the rear steering box NATIONAL 240480.