Thread: Steering box seal mystery

Hey folks,

6 months ago I had a leaking input shaft seal on my 4 bolt Disco steering box.
I pulled it out and put a new seal in.
It lasted the last 6 months no worries. The box was nice and smooth and had no other leaks.

Recently I did some rough tracks and the input seal started leaking again.
I pulled the box expecting to find the shaft had a score etc that had made it start leaking again.
To my surprise, part of the input seal lip has been pushed outwards against the shaft:

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I haven't had time to pull the box apart yet. I was planning to get a complete seal kit and put through it - but wondering what the cause of the seal popping out would have been? Thoughts? Opinions?

I was thinking it could be that another internal high pressure seal has failed and the pressure popped the seal lip out? Or that perhaps the 'top' bearing on the input shaft has failed and allowed the shaft to wobble and pull the lip out (but I cant feel any deflection in the shaft atm!).

The box continued to work fine - even with the seal popped out - it just leaked a lot!

Originally Posted by Finnius

Interesting. I just used whatever type of seal Rovacraft sent me.
Did you just buy a seal from a bearing/seal/hydraulic type place that was the correct dimensions etc?

Work at a hydraulic place, but seal came from AB seals in Brisbane. Most bearing shops should have access to seals better than your run of the mill TC style seals