Bendix gear box - How to choose a junk yard box?

[alvald83]

Here in san jose' we have a steady flow of Bumpsides in our junksides. And during my weekly visits, i walk past these bendix boxes that i am tempted to pick up. Is there a way to check on these junkers, if these boxes are any good or are these just something that you have to rebuild anyway.
These bendix boxes are so expensive that i was just thinking to keep a spare for future needs. It would cost me $60 (w/pittman arm) to pick one up. Are these hard to rebuild myself?

[BobbyFord]

You're better off looking for a truck with a complete saginaw box, arm, column, etc. to swap over to.

[Racer Z]

It helps if the front suspension is complete and the front wheels are touching the ground. Then you can rock the steering wheel back and forth to check for play. If there is play, you will need a helper so one can look while the other rocks the wheel. Play at the steering wheel can be from any part in the steering, so you need to check close to see if it's the gearbox or not.

Grab the pitman arm and try to move it. If you can move the pitman arm with your hand, it's junk.

Gearboxes tend to loose their seals after a whole bunch of years. Look for signs of oozing oil. Manuals have 90 weight or grease, and PS use cherry juice. If the outside of the gearbox is unusually clean, that could be an indication that it was recently rebuilt. A real score, but the risk is that maybe it's only been cleaned and is as bad off as your other unit.

[fordman]

the probelm with most bendix boxes are that they leak around the bottom where the shaft coems out and hooks to the pitman arm. mine was rebuilt right after i got it. the shaft had some pitting on it and it still leaked. but it also had too many washers on the bottom of it. so i removed a few of them that were in the box and it seemed to stop leaking. a saginaw box is the better way to go though. you could also ebay the bendix box if it wasnt what you wanted. they go for a little more than 60.00 on ebay.

[19FORD67]

I believe I heard on here somewhere that a bendix box gets hotter as well. I think Ford went to saginaw because it was better as well, don't quote me on that tho.