J.Craddock & Steering bodge

my 1985 110 is awaiting a heavy duty 3 bolt steering box from J.C. A quick shout to them.

1. They advertised a new unit. Ive been waiting a while. Once I got in touch with them it turned out they were expecting me to send my old S.Box or pay a surcharge. This was mentioned NO WHERE on the product page, description, FAQ, or anywhere else. They put their hands up and have sorted it all now (been very good about it, full marks!!) but with the delay I'm still waiting.

2. SO..... whats a way to bodge the S.Box to stop a leak (from the bottom). I just need it to go through the Oman MOT and must do this in the next 3 days. They walk under the car and look for leaks. Its the easiest test to pass ever, but with the S.Box leaking a full res of fluid in a day it might drip a bit much.

What would be the damage of running it dry to the test centre (2km). the test it's self is driving forward about 40m onto a rolling road. the box will likely go in the bin after i change it anyway!

cheers.

have you got any of that lucas stop leak stuff over there? its essentially treacle like power steering fluid that stops the leak by being so bloody thick!

I doubt it. haven't seen it. it's mostly wax and air fresheners here. anything i can add to the oil to do something similar?

A teaspoon of brake fluid will swell the seals and seal it again temporally

teaspoon with a full amount of oil or just running through neat?

just add a teaspoon to the fluid in the header when its at the proper level, should should sort itself within a day, if its had no effect, add another teaspoon full, if that doesnt help, im all out of ideas

trying it tonight.

NiallRussell said:

I doubt it. haven't seen it. it's mostly wax and air fresheners here. anything i can add to the oil to do something similar?

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Stick some brake fluid in it, it should stop it a bit. Flush the whole system before you fit the new box.

Or clean it up really well and bodge some silicon into/around it.

another for the brake fluid trick, worked on mine, but the leak was nowhere near as big as yours.

Good luck

if your bodging, is it possible to take the power steering belt off and drain the fluid just for the test?

you can fit other steering boxes. you'll need to adapt the pipe fittings to the steering box, as the threads are different, but a hydraulic place can do that no problem.

or if you can get a good flare tool you can cut and reattach the old fittings

went for a drive round the block and the S.box is still leaking with some break fluid in it. I've added a little more. But it looks like I'll do the test with a dry box. BUT... will this damage the pump?!? I can't take the belt off as it's the water pump and alternator drive as well.

on a positive note the new clutch cylinder is working and the new rear drum breaks as well. Nice to tick something off.

how long is the test. Would it fail if the alternator isnt working?

hmmm. maybe not. especially as I've got two batteries.

but the temperature is hitting 45 degrees here at the moment so would be more worried about the car sitting still in the heat.

Not running pump with oil removed is a bad idea run pump with pipes off steering box then run pump within a closed loop ie pipe pump into reservoir that way belt Alty etc still in use and pump running in oil happy days

GATSO - pressurise the first loop, thats ok? won't cause any problems having the pressure in the header tank?

that might be the only option forward then as there is quite a bit of oil under the car. will add a bit more DOT4 but doubt full it's going to work.

if its peeing out that badly swelling the seal a bit wont help.

Have a Low fluid level in res to give room for fluid expansion and pressure displacement [emoji106]

Have you anywhere close to you that sell shaft seals? if you can get a seal to fit the output shaft, whip off the gooseneck (droparm that goes to steering bar) and felt washer, and squash the seal in in front of the circlip, put back in the felt washer and tighen back on the gooseneck. generally the leak is from the shaft seal above the circlip, so doubling up with a new one will stop the leak for a while 20 min job if you can get the seal, its a standard off the shelf part, all you need is the sizing code.

Don't run it dry you'll knacker the pump.