SteerIng box is wetting itself...

Steering box is leaking, seems a common fault. At the moment, the arm is wet and it's dripping probably once a day or so.

So I did a search of course and learnt the following...

The boxes can be crap,
Don't bother trying to fit seals,
Fit recon box with arm,
Paddocks' ones seem ok,
It's an easy job,


Questions...

Is it worth trying stop-leak stuff first?
Recon=good?
Should I get a garage to do it even if it's only for warranty etc?
I have A/C and can't see how it comes out, up or down??
How long do you recon it would take (I'm a bit short of time at present)

Thanks all

Definately try to get one with the arm on.

I know folk that have had no problems with recon box,s, unfortunatly the recon one I got from Paddocks leaked as soon as I put fluid in it !.

I got a new Adwest one for £ 275 + vat. ( 300,s may be less )

Fitting, for me, was fairly straight forward. Took about 4 hours.

The box dropped out the bottom.

Del.

Got one from Paddocks in Oct 2010 - No problems so far

I took mine out from top as I had rad out for HG replacement anyway. Not hard to do really. Make sure you fit new 'o' rings and use the right fluid

T

Hi mate in answer to your questions
Stop leak stuff might do it but its only a stop gap worth a try if getting rid of motor.
Recon box ok but make sure it has a 12 month warrenty - used them my self.
Get a price for garage to do it if its only £50-£60 more why get your hands dirty.
Workshop manual.
Mine on a td5 recently done about 4 - 4.5 hours with assistance.
With the td5 there are a couple of seals that when you take the pipes out its advisable to re new when you put the pipes back in.Would imagine the disco 1 would be like the range rover classic and dont have them.Mine was only a light weep but the leak stuff did not sort it.As has been said get one with the drop arm on.

Ok

Paddocks recon is £109, adwest/paddocks new is £219

I'll ring the garage and get a quote for work, probably go for a recon with warranty.

Thanks

fitting seals often does work , a recon generally only have new seal kit in internals too dear ,i would fit new or reseal yourself,drop arm will come of with pullers and latge punch and big hammer

Ok, so whats the general concensus on doing a lower seal job?? What i would be concerned about is getting stuck in an undriveable condition.

If not it would likely be a recon box but fitted by a garage or a new box fitted by me. The choice would be dictated by the costs involved.

Whats the warranty on a new box, if its only 12 months as is a recon, then whats the point?

Dave

getting drop arm of is obviously hardest job,i use puller + large drift and lump hammer ,allways come eventually ,remove dirt seal remove circlip start engine turn steering wheel in any lock until seal blows out ,clean and check shaft,fit new seal then steel backing washer then circlip the right way round kit stc1042

Bottom seal replacement only works if the shaft is not worn or scored. It maybe worth tryng if the leak is small and recent, otherwise an exchange recon box is worth the money.

From experience I would definately recommend the Adwest boxes.

Ok, garage wants £120-150 labour (+vat)

Looks like i'm doing the job then.

Choices -- Paddocks recon or Adwest New???

Whats the warranty on a new one??

Looks pretty easy in Rave, apart from this one point...

"Position tie bar, tighten bolts and nut to 81Nm starting with tie bar to mounting nut, then loosen nut and bolts one complete turn"

Is is spring loaded or is the tie bar just loose???

Also, are the drag link joints the same as the track rod joints??

I'd vote for Adwest new

I've emailed them now, been ringing all morning, no answer.

tie bar has slotted holes on pas box end and big hole in panhard rod bracket you need to nip them all up so that you dont pull bottom of pas box towards panhard rod bracket as may happen if you fully tighten pas box end the try to tighten other end drag link arm ball joint same as track rod both ends if ball joint screws into drag link and not type with ball joint in drop arm

so its do them up really tight (81nm) then back them off one turn?

sounds odd but i'll not argue with Rave

yes the joints are both screwed, later type. I have one in stock so only need one more.

still not got any reply from Adwest.

Ok, Adwest box is £309.54 new inc P&P & VAT.

Its a bit too rich for me at present so it'll be a Paddocks recon box i reckon.

Both have a 12 month warranty so not much to lose.

I believe i need two o-rings for the pipes too, hopefully they'll have those.

Dave

recon is always a gamble, new is new so you know it'll be a good buy.

mine came out the top, and it took about an hour or so start to finish.

you will need to loosen the splines on the steering colum shaft so you can slide it back, off the steerring box input.

tip: if you need to get your drop arm off, pullers often cant do it. loosen the big nut underneath and repeatedly drive into a kerb or, as i find out quite a lot, go laning for a weekend! (mine comes loose even with the nut on these days)

either way, the force exerted by the steering is far more capable of shocking the arm off than a puller.

cheers

Mr Noisy said:

recon is always a gamble, new is new so you know it'll be a good buy.

mine came out the top, and it took about an hour or so start to finish.

you will need to loosen the splines on the steering colum shaft so you can slide it back, off the steerring box input.

tip: if you need to get your drop arm off, pullers often cant do it. loosen the big nut underneath and repeatedly drive into a kerb or, as i find out quite a lot, go laning for a weekend! (mine comes loose even with the nut on these days)

either way, the force exerted by the steering is far more capable of shocking the arm off than a puller.

cheers

Click to expand...

That's all well and good but it's 200 odd quid more that I dont have. They both have same warranty too.

I think I'll pass on that method of pulling the arm I'm getting the box with the arm fitted already.

Will it come out of the top if I have aircon ??

Is the steering joint (input) keyed or can it go back in any position? Just looking for pitfalls before I get the spanners out.

I'm going to order a new drag link too because if it's anything like the track rod, it'll be rusted up tight and the joints need doing.

steering linkage has a cutaway for pinch bolts these will only fit one way if pinch bolt is to fit properly but one or more usually has a cutaway all around the shaft allowing you to position for aliging steering wheel,two people helps for that part ,with fine tuning done on drag link

Ok thanks all, I'm ordering the stuff tomorrow.

Hopefully that'll be the last job for a while.