Steering box, to rebuild or not

Ok, most everything is out of engine bay. I took off steering box to clean up and paint before putting in engine. So the question is how do I determine if I should have it rebuild or not. It seems to turn good, and the car only has 70K miles. If I rebuild, is it hard to do or best left to a pro????

It's not too bad if you have a few special tools. Without them, it can still be done, but it's a bit tougher. But with the proper shop manual, nothing most of the handy guys here can't handle.

Check for play in the box. If it feels good, check the fluid. Do you see any metal flakes or dust floating in the fluid?

If both are okay, you may want to replace the seals, reset the adjustments, and just use it as it is. Otherwise the rebuild is in order.

Goes to show what I know,,,,didnt know you could check the fluid.

When I bought my 68 the steering box was leaking (the headers were to close) I bought a rebuilt box, but there are alot of places that will rebuild yours if you don't feel like doing it yourself. A new or rebuilt steering box makes a big difference.
Good luck
Alan