Power steering gear box

[54belair]

The one that was installed today was a factory housing that was rebuilt. There are ways to identify the housings but what it seems hard or impossible to identify is whether or not it has been rebuilt AND if it was rebuilt to original specs. The gear I took out was a 3.5 turn Lock to lock unit as was the one that went back in. What makes the Saginaw gear boxes such a pain is partially the running production changes and the fact that later model parts can be installed into an earlier housing. In my case I got lucky, I was able to get the 68-72 coupler (since unbeknownst to me my original coupler had been changed to match the input shaft change on my original box.
The rebuilder charged 150. core charge in addition to the 300. for the gearbox. For a gear box to be accepted as a good core--they have to be identical in every respect as well as rebuildable. Since my original box was not what I thought it to be the rebuilder could have said" sorry I keep you core deposit," but he didn't, we talked and he realized it was a mistake and he honored the core agreement. I would recommend his company to anyone. (good customer service).