Against all advice from the boards i ordered a reman steering gear from rock auto. I settled on bbb because of the mew bearings and seals claim. Well about 5 months ago my reman started leaking heavily from the adjustment screw. i decided to order a $20 seal kit and rebuild my old one while i sent the reman back. I am an A&P mechanic so i figured this would be an easy job. Boy was i wrong the whole assembly came apart easily. The two needle sleeve bearings in the body and the spindle nut on the valve assembly were impossible to remove. I destroyed the 4 prong slots on the 2" spindle nut by having to beat the nut out with a punch amd hammer. The 2 needle sleeve bearings are impossible to punch out and a drift and hammer cant get the outter sleeve to budge. This had me curious as to how BBB industries did it like they claimed in their product description with new bearings and seals. Well turns out they didnt.

As i pulled the steering shaft from the steering gear body i was shocked at all the rust on my steering shaft.


Along with the shaft being covered in rust, the piston had this black tar goo all over it along with rust.





The BBB description says all new seals. Well thats impossible if they never removed the spindle nut on the valve body. The inner valve assembly has an older koyo bearing that is no longer in production or has a cross reference number from koyo.the Inner spool valve has 4 teflon seals and the worm gear shaft that goes through it has a backup oring underneath a teflon seal on the shaft. All 6 of these plus the bearing plus the input shaft seal could not have been replaced. You can see the original oem staking is still intact



Heres some of the rusty needle sleeve roller bearings


More pics coming tomorrow if i can get the spindle nut off without destroying the worm gear shaft and spindle nut like i did with the original one.

When i called BBB they pretty much could care less and told me to take it up with rockauto even though i was told that they provide the product description for rockauto to use. The man on the phone said if i feel like it file a complaint with the consumer protection bureau, which i did.

Heres the bbb steering gear box description on the site

Sector shafts are 100% magnafluxed guaranteeing structural integrity by eliminating microscopic cracks to ensure long service life
Gear housings are inspected, bead blasted, and rust proofed to enhance service life
All seals and O-rings replaced with 100% new OE-equivalent parts to ensure there will be no leaks and guarantee product reliability
Sealing services are restored and polished to maximize sealing and enhance service life
Recirculating bearings are 100% replaced with new and matched sets guaranteeing correct steering feel and performance
Units are 100% functionally tested for leaks and performance to ensure unit meets OE specifications

 

Ouch. That is definitely not freshly re-man stuff. So sorry you got stuck with it. Based on your photos, I'd say you definitely have a case. How you can resolve it with the manufacturer blowing you off is a different story. Best of luck to you.