sneakingfart
OBS Enthusiast
I will tell you my situation, and why I basically replaced everything. I got my 1999 K1500 Suburban for $100. The guy, who is my father in law's cousin just wanted it gone. It was not running, sat for over a year, had some body rust, and the interior was a mess. Not torn up, like a lot of them get, but needed significant attention. I got it running in the driveway of his house, but the engine ran like crap. Rear diff was toast (that's why it sat), so it did not move. But the transmission did shift through all of the selections, 4WD seemed to shift, etc.
It took me about year before it was up to my "daily driver" standards in both looks and function. Once I started driving it daily, the steering declared itself. There was about 10 inches of free play in the steering in either direction, and the truck wandered on the road. I replaced the steering shaft and rag joint, which was in very poor condition (once I took it off, it was obviously worn). The improvement I got from this was marginal at best. I took it to my friend who runs a shop in town, we did some checks, all of the suspension components were solid, the free play was coming from the steering box. He told me (as is the consensus here) to not get the standard Cardone or auto parts store reman box, as the quality is hit or miss, and the labor cost and time alone isn't worth it to play the game of moving deck chairs on the titanic by swapping boxes until you find a decent one. So I went with a Redhead box. As an aside, I recommend it with some caveats. It does seem like a quality rebuild, but mine did come with a small amount of free play, that seems to be well within the range of the adjustment screw. I know you void warranty by touching that screw, but I will do it anyway at some point. That said, the steering is 99% better. I doesn't come close to matching the quality and feel of my BMW for example, but I doubt it ever did.
Because I was replacing the steering box, I didn't want to leave a 25 year old pump in place, considering that replacing it in the future is almost like doing this same job twice. I didn't seem to leak, seemed to work OK, but again, if it craps out at any point, you have to disconnect all the lines, drain all the fluid, refill, re-bleed, etc. And imagine it craps out and shoots metal glitter all over the system. So I just had it all done in one shot. And because of the questionable quality of the remans on the market today, and because you can still get a new GM genuine pump, that's what I went with. Overall, I spent almost $2k on this alone, but once I get around to making a tiny adjustment on the steering box, I will hopefully have a trouble free steering system for the next 2 decades. I did not do this job myself, although I could have, just don't have the time and don't feel like crawling underneath the truck for hours, so a lot of the cost was labor. I have twin toddlers, and they only want to ride in this truck, so the control systems have to be reliable.
I think your decision making process should be as follows: How close to factory new do I want to make this, what kind of longevity/reliability am I looking for, what's my budget, and what is my time frame. Based on this, you can see where to go.
