Topic: steering box piston/recirculating balls re-assembly help!!!

[cuatroXcuatro]

I'm tapping my steering box for ram assist steering on my 85 4runner (87 ifs box), following a handy how-to thread from this forum.
Well last night curiosity killed the cat and I unscrewed the piston from the sector shaft to see what was inside  . I then spent the next hour trying to reassemble it. 
 Is there any trick to getting all those recirculating ball bearings back in? I've tried a number of combinations with no luck yet. All the bearings are in but they all have to within the recirculation circuit, i.e. between the holes and inside the recirculation tube. A couple of the bearings are in the groove but not in the circuit, and its driving me NUTS!

[DTB]

make sure you find all those little balls

[cuatroXcuatro [OP]]

Got them all.

[cuatroXcuatro [OP]]

I got the suckers in!
Took about 15 minutes, a fresh mind and a different approach.

[mca]

hey cuatroXcuatro......I know this thread is old, but can you remember how you got those recirculating balls back in the correct place?  Did you do it before putting the input shaft back in or did you remove that little recirculating tube from the back and put the bearings back in there afterwards and just let them go back in place on their own?