Rebuilding gear box technical question. Help!

[bldeagle10]

I rebuilt my Saginaw steering box in my 99 XJ, or at least I thought I did. When I put the worm gear in, I feed the bearings into the piston and as soon as you turn the gear they spit out the back end of the piston, am I only supposed to feed them into the one side (top side)? Either way they would work their way to the bottom, am I missing a seal that keeps them from spitting out the bottom of the piston?

 

[dwh]

There are two kinds of balls. See if this helps:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/570869-saginaw-box-rebuild-how.html

 

[bldeagle10]

I checked with a micrometer and they are all the same size but I will pull them out and triple check