Thread: Steering box leaking fluid

Hello Jim,

Well, in so much as my newish Defender has **** it's steering box, I too have been through this pain recently - but not in terms of fixing the issue. Land Rover Australia can pick up the tab for that one.

But isn't it odd - steering boxes seem to be a Land Rover weakness - who'd have thought this possible?

So - unfortunately, I can't provide any instructive comments on the fix - but hopefully this "bump" will provide you with an answer.

Good luck.

The quick way to get a seal out of a 4 bolt 'box.
(should work in the earlier ones too)

Undo the drop arm (if you can), pop off the dust seal, undo the circlip, slip the drop arm back on and do the nut up lightlyy, put a big tray under the steering box, turn the engine on and wind the steering to full lock and once the seal blows, shut the engine down very quickly.

Install new seal (wrap output shaft threads and spline with masking or electrical tape before sliding seal on) and re-assemble components

Mate

first thing you need to check out is if it is a 3 boult or 4. all the latter ones are 4 but a 85 will be a 3 unless it has been swaped out.

there are quite a few difrences between the 2, the 4 suposably is stronger the 3 is more likley to get you home, not that there are storys about the 4 leaving you stranded.

any way the 3 has 2 seals up there.

check it out and i can scan the 3 exsploded diagram or 4 for that matter

Thanks to all for supportive comments and suggestions.

Clean32,
I have a 4 bolt box if that means there are 4 bolts attaching it to the chassis. I will really appreciate an exploded diagram so I can see where I am going with this.

Regards
Jim

Originally Posted by Carslil Jim

Thanks to all for supportive comments and suggestions.

Clean32,
I have a 4 bolt box if that means there are 4 bolts attaching it to the chassis. I will really appreciate an exploded diagram so I can see where I am going with this.

Regards
Jim

No, three and four bolt refers to the number of bolts on the top cover assembly.

I have a four bolt drawing but no three (that I can copy easily), but it looks like C32 has a three bolt drawing.

With the three bolt it looks like you pop the circlip first, the dust cover/supplementary seal is above that, then the main seal as C32 said.

you have to find out what caused the seal to leak , is the sharft damaged ? which is most probably the case so repacing the seal will only be a temp fix

can help put it off for quite some time

Thanks again for suggestions.

I have a three bolt steering box if you count the bolts that hold the "lid" down. There is an additional smaller bolt towards the centre (bleed?), and an adjuster in the centre.

I sure would like a diagram showing the seal(s) at bottom of the box if anyone has it.