Red Head Econoline Steering Box Review

[arctictraveller]

My most recent Red Head is tight and steers well, but sometimes I have to roll forward a touch before I get any assist.

[JWA]

The corporation Lares would be a product I'd be willing to try if I needed or wanted to renew my power assist steering gear: https://www.larescorp.com/about-lares/

HTH

[Timerider]

Big_ern_101,

Glad to hear that you're pleased with your RedHead rebuild!

Our RedHead-rebuilt steering box was a bit tight at first, but it slowly loosened up over the next 5,000 miles or so to where the steering again has some reasonable "return to center" characteristics. We just had to be patient. Given that micro-inches seem to matter in these mechanisms, perhaps it's no surprise that there is some variability in the outcome of their rebuilds. Better to start "too tight", than "too loose".

Our turnaround time from RedHead in getting our steering box rebuilt was similar to yours, and we are quite pleased with the results.

Ditto as to your "sports car" impression. The only other thing that we've done to/for our Silver Kitten that improved her steering anywhere near as much as the RedHead rebuild was when we replaced the (Buna N?) Chevy S-10 leaf-spring bushings that Quigley uses at the ends of their upper and lower torque arms on the front axle with some higher-durometer urethane ones.

Now our rig really goes where we tell her to - all the time!

Timerider

[kbeefy]

I have a Redhead on my F350, I've had it about 5 years and 20k miles. Has always worked great (and still does).


After having several parts store remans come back for replacement, I started only using Redhead at my business. As a result, we only did a few gearboxes as the price drove customers elsewhere, but the ones that did get one loved it and never came back faulty. The next time I need a gearbox I will get another Redhead.