Spent the day getting things ready, cleaned up and replacing some steering parts.
Steering box was leaking out of the steering shaft and starting to weep out the sector shaft. It’s still a very tight box so I wasn’t about to play “steering box Russian roulette” with napa (it’s lifetime warranty from 10 years ago). Bought a seal kit and dug in. All in all, really wasn’t all that bad. Changed the seals and slammed it back together.
Cleaned up the pitman arm as well and once back in the truck, figured I’d clean the steering lines, center link and tie rods. Hasn’t been cleaned in a loooooong time
I’ll roll it out before the engine goes in to wash the firewall and degrease the front diff.
My idler arm support was finally showing some wear over the last year or so, so with the engine out, it would be a good time to replace it. Replaced the idler arm as well. It had just a little slip back and forth. For 100k miles and 10 years of work on both parts, I’m not going to bitch one bit! Napa warranty again for the win. Walked in with my receipts from 09 and walked out 10 min later with new parts for nothin.
And then to finish the day off, I pulled the batmowheel off the ihi to put the stock wheel back on. Also pulled the drain tube, cleaned it and put new gaskets on since it was weeping.
Just waiting on the engine now. Should have it back before the 4th so I can assemble then.