Has anyone actually broken a steering box?

Good point about the old parts. There are new OE looking boxes being sold now though.

And, the the borgeson boxes are smaller and lighter than OE power steering boxes. They're not smaller or lighter than the OE manual steering boxes. Here are some weights. I weighed the OE manual, power, and flaming river boxes. The Borgeson number is using math and Peter Bergman's info from his website.

OE manual steering box:..........................12.4 lbs
OE power steering box, large sector:......... 37.5 lbs
Flaming river 16:1 manual box:……………………17.8 lbs
Borgeson power steering box......................22.5 lbs (per Peter Bergman, 15lbs lighter than OE power box)
I missed the manual steering part lol. Do you have a list of all the weights you did a while back comparing stock to aftermarket options?