[Smokedink76]

Has anyone done or know where i can find info about changing my manual steering box in my 05 jimny. I had my steering box rebuilt in November last year, has since had play and returned to same place where it was adjusted. Still has a knocking noise coming from bottom end of the steering box and frankly drives like crap. It was pretty good for most of this year and has progressively got worse. I want to look at a more beefy steering box as the rebuilder told me the jimny little boxes hate big tyres. Any idears?

[Brenno]

How big are your tyres. I have run 33s off a PS jimny box with no issues

[Smokedink76]

Just 30s non power steering. Ive also replaced everything new in suspension and steering wise

[Gwagensteve]

What was done when the box was rebuilt? As far as I am aware none of the wear parts in a a Jimny box are available separately, so generally a rebuild will be replacing bushings and seals, at best. If the sector shaft or any other hard parts in the box are worn, new bushes and seals won't fix it.

Anyways, upgrading to a bigger steering box is a very substantial fabrication and engineering job, involving chassis welding and modification, steering geometry and link changes, possible radiator changes and body work around the inner guard area, along with statutory approval. It is complicated by there not being a huge number of larger vehicles which run the sector shaft inside the rail steering box with the majority of the box sitting over the rail. One possible source I've located is mid 90's Jackeroo (rodeo may be the same) It's also worth considering that doing all this work won't add any value to the vehicle or be detectable in 99.9% of driving.

Anything is possible but I wouldn't bother for 30" tyres. I've run 35's with a Vitara PS box (which is very similar but doesn't bolt in to a Sierra or a Jimny) for many years and while it's possible to stall it out with the tyre completely against a bank or similar, that's a better option than having enough power to break the steering arms off the knuckles, because that's a real pain in the bush.