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Not specific vehicle related but might be helpful to others 
I had a problem with the steering box on my Disco(yes this is one of the many on this project :roll: ) the steering box made a good impression of a watering can :shock: it could empty the contents of the reservoir in less than 30 mins just ticking over and moving it around the yard.
So decisions :?
A) New steering box @ 595 :shock: but a years warranty!
B) Recon steering box @ 350 :| But no warranty at all!
C) Try to fix the one I have ????
I went with option C.
Remove the steering box, 6 bolts and two pipes and removing the steering shaft.
Removing the drop arm from the box can be extremely interesting, I used a combination of a set of pullers and a 4lb hammer, it gave in surprisingly easily!!
This is why.
The blue rubbish you see in that picture is a "repair" they do over here basically to get it sold, that is RTV sealant and they simply clean the shaft up and smear that on then refit with new seals, professional hey :evil: :evil: :evil:
Now you need to remove the shaft from the box, on the top of the steering box are 4 bolts holding the cover down and a sealing lock nut on an allen keyed bolt, you need to measure/count the threads above the nut as this is where your box is "adjusted" to, and remove the nut, the threaded bolt is attached to the shaft and by winding the bolt (in or out I can't remember right now ) you can push the cover plate up and make life easy, once up simply keep turning the bolt until the top comes away. Then in order to remove the shaft it may need a few turns of the steering shaft to get the worm wheel to line up with the extraction slot but a bit of persuasion from underneath helps release the grip of the old seals, once in your hands it will look something like this. Do this over a bucket too as ATF does tend to make the kitchen floor slippery :shock:
You can see the dull area of the shaft where it is quite pitted, where this box had been done previously they had kindly removed a lot of the debris and surface rusting from it, but it will not seal again due to the pitting and hydraulic pressure against the seal.
What I have here is the shaft that has been rubbed back a little with some very fine emery cloth and a new seal kit for the bottom, I sourced my seal kit locally at more than 3X the cost of shipping from the UK so learned the hard way but the seal kits are cheap enough from any of the spares outlets, like this one, I only needed a new bottom shaft seal and a new dust cover/seal retainer plate and a rubber dust cover also it is an idea to use the new locking nut in the kit as this has a seal built into the bottom of it too.
Removing the old seals from the box requires good sturdy circlip pliers and patients!!! With the circlip out you can then extract the vulcanized steel plate that acts as a seal retainer and dust shield and then hook out the old seal, be careful not to damage the housing as you have to drift in the new dust shield/seal retainer!!
Now you need to refit the shaft in the steering box after it has been cleaned up, hence needing to know the depth on the adjuster nut :wink:
This is where I have done a massive amount of leg work and found the best solution based on costs.
I have used a speedi-sleeve to create a new sealing surface for the seal to run on, the size you will need for this is 31.75mm, the shaft is 32 but after you have rubbed it down a little and the fact that you need an interference fit for it to work properly means you need a tighter sleeve, get a small length of tube the correct diameter to use as a drift and fit the sleeve.
I could only get a 32mm sleeve and was simply not prepared to wait yet another week for the 31.75 so I decided to use a sealing and locking compound under sleeve to hold it in place and seal against hydraulic pressure trying to force its way out under the sleeve.
Then refit all the new seals and dust seal/retainer plate and secure with the circlip.
Then refit to your car, it may be necessary to need to adjust your steering further once refitted so be careful and test drive it locally first to be sure that everything is adjusted correctly, then job done.
I had a problem with the steering box on my Disco(yes this is one of the many on this project :roll: ) the steering box made a good impression of a watering can :shock: it could empty the contents of the reservoir in less than 30 mins just ticking over and moving it around the yard.
So decisions :?
A) New steering box @ 595 :shock: but a years warranty!
B) Recon steering box @ 350 :| But no warranty at all!
C) Try to fix the one I have ????
I went with option C.
Remove the steering box, 6 bolts and two pipes and removing the steering shaft.
Removing the drop arm from the box can be extremely interesting, I used a combination of a set of pullers and a 4lb hammer, it gave in surprisingly easily!!
This is why.
The blue rubbish you see in that picture is a "repair" they do over here basically to get it sold, that is RTV sealant and they simply clean the shaft up and smear that on then refit with new seals, professional hey :evil: :evil: :evil:
Now you need to remove the shaft from the box, on the top of the steering box are 4 bolts holding the cover down and a sealing lock nut on an allen keyed bolt, you need to measure/count the threads above the nut as this is where your box is "adjusted" to, and remove the nut, the threaded bolt is attached to the shaft and by winding the bolt (in or out I can't remember right now
) you can push the cover plate up and make life easy, once up simply keep turning the bolt until the top comes away. Then in order to remove the shaft it may need a few turns of the steering shaft to get the worm wheel to line up with the extraction slot but a bit of persuasion from underneath helps release the grip of the old seals, once in your hands it will look something like this. Do this over a bucket too as ATF does tend to make the kitchen floor slippery :shock: 
You can see the dull area of the shaft where it is quite pitted, where this box had been done previously they had kindly removed a lot of the debris and surface rusting from it, but it will not seal again due to the pitting and hydraulic pressure against the seal.
What I have here is the shaft that has been rubbed back a little with some very fine emery cloth and a new seal kit for the bottom, I sourced my seal kit locally at more than 3X the cost of shipping from the UK so learned the hard way but the seal kits are cheap enough from any of the spares outlets, like this one, I only needed a new bottom shaft seal and a new dust cover/seal retainer plate and a rubber dust cover also it is an idea to use the new locking nut in the kit as this has a seal built into the bottom of it too.
Removing the old seals from the box requires good sturdy circlip pliers and patients!!! With the circlip out you can then extract the vulcanized steel plate that acts as a seal retainer and dust shield and then hook out the old seal, be careful not to damage the housing as you have to drift in the new dust shield/seal retainer!!
Now you need to refit the shaft in the steering box after it has been cleaned up, hence needing to know the depth on the adjuster nut :wink:
This is where I have done a massive amount of leg work and found the best solution based on costs.
I have used a speedi-sleeve to create a new sealing surface for the seal to run on, the size you will need for this is 31.75mm, the shaft is 32 but after you have rubbed it down a little and the fact that you need an interference fit for it to work properly means you need a tighter sleeve, get a small length of tube the correct diameter to use as a drift and fit the sleeve.
I could only get a 32mm sleeve and was simply not prepared to wait yet another week for the 31.75 so I decided to use a sealing and locking compound under sleeve to hold it in place and seal against hydraulic pressure trying to force its way out under the sleeve.
Then refit all the new seals and dust seal/retainer plate and secure with the circlip.
Then refit to your car, it may be necessary to need to adjust your steering further once refitted so be careful and test drive it locally first to be sure that everything is adjusted correctly, then job done.
