Disco I steering box leaks

[Gina]

I have a leak from my steering box.

A few things along the way. I cleaned up the pump and replaced the hose clamps on both ends of the inlet. the pump inlet hose is getting hard and i will have to replace it at some point. While i was fiddling under I spied rust and what looks like corrosion on the welsh plug on the port side of the motor.

I will clean that up and treat with preservative. Dosn't look to hard to get to if it needs replacement.

any way none of this fixed the leak which after a lot of cleaning up is apparently coming from the steering box.

First pic the end of the hose on the pump showing mild weeping and very hardened hose.

Second pic socket spanner on hose clamp. Very hard to get to and exact length extension essential.

Third Pic . The steering box from below. The fluid appears to be dripping from the very bottom bolt. I am guessing at this stage it is coming from the lower oil seal.

My questions. can I replace it in situ??? Looks like I only have to remove arms and pull out old seal and pop in a new one.

Should I purchase a second hand unit overhaul it and replace the existing one. It looks like a Full days work to get the old one out and a new one in and then I have to figure out how to bleed it.

[Kevin B]

Hi Gina,

Check out this thread, took me a couple of hours and 30 buck, I did it without removing the box

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/technical-chatter/168668-repairing-leaking-steering-box.html

Kevin

[Spel1]

You can do a much more thorough job if you have the option to prepare another unit in advance, less down time for the vehicle too. I much prefer to work on a bench than upside down. Changeover isn't all that difficult. Do the hoses at the same time. For the non pressure lines go to a hydraulic shop like Enzed - their hoses will last a lot longer and you can buy what you need.

[Gina]

Fabulous Kev

[manchild21000]

Seal kit cost $16.50. I did in situ and under an hour .
George

[inside]

Isn't the leaking a symptom and not the cause? While you can fit new seals I was under the impression that they will leak again.

[manchild21000]

Yes Inside , it leaked again after 1 month when i did it on the defender due to the worn shaft , however the disco was still strong after 2 years when i sold it .
cheers

[Gina]

Ok I am giving it a go .

Not for the faint hearted I think.

The socket for the big nut on the bottom is 7/8 BS ( don't know what that is in metric. )
I used a ring spanner. I had a four foot long piece of pipe over the end and with a lot of effort cracked the nut. Its is very very tight.

Now I have a three jaw puller on the pitman arm and have it done up tight and hit the pitman arm on either side simultaneously with a hammer and it doesn't budge. it too is very very tight.

I suspect a leak on the input shaft as well. Which I might also try in situ ...but feeling a change over might have been the go except they are very expensive.

[Gina]

Ok so I am not going to get this baby off without a pitman arm puller. I am looking at a Stanley version from supercheap .

My standard gear pullers didn't have a chance. The proper version is used with a rattle gun. So more to come .

The hilarious consequences of trying it with my HIT gear-puller below

[isuzurover]

Did you check for shaft play before starting (up-down and side-side)???

In MOST cases IME the leaking seal is a symptom of a worn box and a new or reco unit is needed.

[Gina]

see

[Judo]

Can you put a bit of heat into the outside?

When removing some tie rods, I have hit them quite hard without success, but add a bit of heat and they almost dropped off themselves.

[Gina]

Look they are notoriously hard to get off.

Heating them in sit u is not something I would do. I will get a change a replacement then overhaul this one off the vehicle where applying heat will not be so scary.

Breaking a pitman arm puller really said it all.

[Vern]

I have an expensive puller, I tried using that, then applied belting the hell out of it with a big hammer, then applied heat and hammer, then applied angle grinder to pit man arm with puller and big hammer, bingo I got it off. Then rebuilt the whole box:) good luck.

[Gina]

Ok some more things that aren't in the manual.

The lower radiator hose will get in the way. I loosened of both ends and removed the end that fits onto the radiator .

The Oil filter gets in the way. I removed the oil filter.

It only just fits out when you do all of that.

The steering tie bar looks like it needs a bush at one end. It doesn't .

I will put up some photos when I get a chance.

[Vern]

The steering tie bar looks like it needs a bush at one end. It doesn't .
Yeah always wondered about that, why is it so?
Anyone explain it?

[Gina]

because its just rough.
The bolts that hold the Tie bar to the steering are also very loose the holes being around 1/16 too big for the bolts. Amazingly huge clearances.
.
I was told that the reason the seals wear is the lower bush wears out and knocks the seal around. I was also shown U-tube videos of people removing the pitman arm using a pitman arm puller.

My experience has been very different to much of what I have been told.

It is very very hard to replace the seal in situ. There are a number of difficulties.

Firstly there is no lower bush in the steering box . when I finally got it out i was looking at the end of a Torrington B-2020 needle roller bearing that was as tight as a drum. No play whatsoever in the sector shaft .

My view is the seal wears out because it is a very basic u cup seal.

To get the pitman arm ( they call it a drop arm in the manual) off was easier than I had supposed once the box is off the car.

NO need for a puller. I heated it up ) destroying the dust seal in the process. Gave it a several of good belts with a mash hammer and off it came. Fairly important to get it off quickly before it has a chance to transfer too much heat onto the sector shaft.

[Gina]

As you can see from the photos I brought a new Disco II steering box. I had to pull the pitman arm off that and put the original back onto it .

The Disco II has a very different pitman arm.

Somewhere I was told you cant get the pitman arm on the wrong way...oh yes you can . It has four key-ways so it is possible to get it 90 degrees 180 degrees and 270 degrees wrong .

I went to a lot of trouble to make sure the steering was straight with the steering wheel bars horizontal , marked the lower universal joint , and checked the wheels were exactly straight and the pitman arm alignment groove was exactly lined up with the hole in the steering box casting.

Knocking the pitman arm of the new steering box ( couldn't heat it as I didn't want to damage the seals) was easy enough . Hard hitting using a very large drift and a heavy mash hammer.

[Gina]

When I removed the box from the car I found the bolts that hold it to the chassis loose as were all of the bolts on the tie bar.

The chassis bolts are a worry. No spring washers and tightening them really tight might compress the chassis rails. There are no anti crush tubes in the chassis.

No spring washers on anything and the locknut's have very thin nylon for locking.
My solution is decent spring washers or drill and lock wire the heads of the bolts for the chassis and use decent locknut's on the Tie bar.

The ball joint came off the pitman arm using a standard ball joint extractor . Lots of pressure and it let go with a bang.

[Gina]

After I had installed the new box the instructions in the manual are about right. refitted radiator hoses , new oil filter hydraulic pipes , refilled reservoir then bled it. The bleed nut is terrifyingly close to the serpentine belt. My knuckles were centimetres away from it as I bled it. Bleeding is very straight forward and the manual is right .

I then decided to put the kit I had purchased on e-bay into the old box. (Britparts STC 2848) all the bits in it were about the same as the original bits .

I found the cir-clip hard to remove as warned in other threads. I used strong cir-clip pliers , once I had a gap popped a small screwdriver into it and levered it out.
The seal protector beneath it was a different story . very very hard to remove. I ended up drilling a hole in either side and prizing it out with a couple of right angle oil seal extractors. The cir-clip groove is the problem. The rubber on it or any slight misalignment has it catching on the cir-clip groove.

Once that was out it was easy enough to pry the old oil seal out.

Then I put the new one in and discovered that it would be very very easy to damage the lips on the outside edges .

It is easy enough to get the seal into the hole but once it is pushed down it has to pass by the cir-clip groove. the only way to know if the lip has been damaged is to pressure test the box once assembled.

I wonder how many people have put in new seal and thought something else must be wrong because it continued to leak because the oil seal was damaged during assembly. The solution is to use a seal saver or very thin thin shim stock to cover the cir-clip grooves while the seal is pushed down.

In any event I pumped it up on a hydraulic rig and no leaks so I have a spare disco I steering box in serviceable condition and wasted a lot of money purchasing a spare because I was told by an "expert" that the lower bushes will be worn and so the seal will get knocked out of shape and it will leak again in a week or so....

:censored:

[Gina]

The tie arm is an interesting thing. If I bushed out the bolt holes that hold it to the steering box so its a good fit...there is no way it would line up in the centre of the hole in the suspension .

If I bushed that hole it would pre-load the bolts that hold it to the steering box.

So I guess I will leave it as designed.