Worm Gear Damage

Things were looking good for a while, until I found damage on the worm gear. The rest of the Ross steering box looks good. Can this be repaired or do I need a new worm gear? If new one needed what size, and where is a good place to purchase one?

This is a stock 1971 cj5 w/V6

 

What size sector shaft does it have? Early ones were 7/8" later 15/16".

I have two Ross boxes one is still in a 66 Dauntless I am parting out, the other came from a 67 CJ5 standard. I haven't pulled them apart yet, so don't know condition.

 

???

 

Did I once see reports of dangerously bad ones coming from Omix-Aida?.

Caveat Emptor

 

Oldpappy the Sector shaft in the steering box is 15/16”

 

Pete,

There were a lot of reports of failures of the Omix-Ada sector shafts 7 or 8 years ago, I don't know if the issue was corrected but I am not going to risk using one.
Ron F. (RFJP.COM) was working on getting better quality sector shafts to market a couple years ago. If I needed one I would check with him first.

Camshafters,

Next time I am down there I will check to see if either of the CJ5 boxes down there have the 15/16" shaft.

 

Camshafters,

Next time I am down there I will check to see if either of the CJ5 boxes down there have the 15/16" shaft.

Oldpappy,

Thank you that will help get me back on the trail.

 

Mine is alot worse than that and that was 15 years ago. I run a homemade tightsteer though. I think that one looks good honestly. They are hard to find for the v6 box is special

 

I went down to the barn today and checked the two CJ5 steering boxes I have. The one in the Dauntless Jeep does have the 15/16", but it is real sloppy. I'll have to pull it apart to see if the worm shaft is usable. It may be a while before I am ready to move the Jeep up the hill to the shop for complete tear down, and need to be able to steer it to tow it up the hill.