How to remove PS box

-
There's a dust cap covering the lower seal, then a snap ring, then the seal itself. Too late now but... Hydraulic pressure would have blown this seal right out into a drain pan before the box was removed.
Sometimes I will run a small screw into a old seal, pull the screw to pull the seal.
Tiny O ring? Not sure. I'm thinking the centering valve atop the box has 2 O rings under it.
Bushing at the pitman arm? I'm drawing a blank here. Some aftermarket vendors offer replacement grease boots for various suspension parts.
 
Yeah, I read about that tip for blowing the seal out, and I think if I was to do this again, I would probably do that. Once I had the box on the bench, I had access to a friend's impact gun and that made the job of getting the pitman arm off a lot easier than if I'd tried doing it under the car. Lesson learned is to always have the right tools on hand for the job. Is there a trick to getting to seals back in place? Just tap them in with a deep socket?

The tiny o-ring is maybe 1/4" across - doesn't seem to be for anything directly related to the steering shaft near as I can tell. Maybe the kit is used for multiple box types, or maybe it's for something like the valve you mentioned that I haven't taken apart. Hopefully it's not one that's leaking. :p

Found a suggestion to order a poly bushing from Summit after measuring the old bushing. I got measurements of about 5/8" i.d. on the top of the bushing and 1 3/8" i.d. on the bottom. Summit had one that measure 0.6" i.d x 1 3/8", so I might need to drill it out a little - we'll see. I've had some really bad experiences with poly bushings on the trailing arms of another of my cars, so I was reluctant to get poly, but if I can't get a replacement rubber bushing, what do you do... My neighbor had a close fit from a Mazda, but it was a little too big on the bottom and would've just let the grease out. While I was ordering from Summit, I got a couple cans of Rustoleum semi-gloss black, no primer required.

-John
 
A couple updates - been sick this week, so slow progress.

I got the bushing from Summit and it seems a perfect fit for the pitman arm. Managed to get all the seals off the sector shaft. The dust seal was easy to remove, snap ring was a little tricky, and then I used a technique from another member to remove the main seal (2 #6 wood screws - still took some muscle and a good pair of pliers to pull it out). There was a washer inside the snap ring, and I thought at first that it was the inner seal until my drill bit was taking forever to go through it (doh!). Fortunately, damage to it was minimal and I should be able to reuse it.

The sector shaft has no wiggle to it at all, which is a good sign.

Question: The input shaft has some play (maybe a 1mm or less left to right) - is this normal or do I need to take the rest of box apart?

I should be able to get all the seals back in tomorrow and paint it, and with any luck install it before the end of the weekend. Worst case, I'll have the Scamp back on the road next weekend.

-John
 
Almost done, but now I've got the problem where the steering wheel spins to the left when not held.

I followed the tip in this helpful article to lessen the effect:

A body Power Steering "self turns"

But after loosening the 2 1/2" bolts and bumping the block up toward the firewall as far as I could (it doesn't seem to move much in either direction, maybe 1/8"), the wheel spins less violently, but the car is still not driveable. I think I've got all the air out of the system (no froth in the fluid). What else can I do? Is there maybe a passage blocked inside the steering box or am I just not aligning or moving the block enough? This sucks after all the work I put into it.

-John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top