I have tried before to find this out, but unless someone can prove otherwise, AGR is still using the brass/bronze bushing as the primary means of support for the lower end of the sector shaft. That is a crap way of doing it and the one on my very custom AGR unit cracked in half after only a few trips through the Hammers.
Lee MFG took the steering gear apart and showed the cracked part to me. He solves the problem by machining the bore for caged needle bearings and running three of them. I don't know if this is standard for Station and/or Howe (I suspect it is as they are both quality minded places) but if you want crap, go ahead and hook yourself up with some AGR stuff.