Leaking steering box

[Edahall]

The steering box on my 3/4 ton 4x4 Suburban is leaking out of the seal and it's getting worse. How difficult is it to change out this seal? I also have a steering box from a 1/2 ton 2 wheel drive Suburban. Will they interchange? Both vehicles have over 500k miles.

[70K10Hunter]

4x4 box pitman arm is clocked differently than a 2wd box. not interchangeable....unless you want to go with cross over steering. to replace the seal in the box that is leaking, you will need a pair of snapring pliers and a small seal puller although I do it slightly differently with a drill and sheet metal screws. disconnect the rag joint remove the snapring remove the dirt seal and use small seal puller to get old seal out then install new seal.

I bought a seal kit from Napa for like $20

[sweetk30]

you sir do it the hard way . . . .

remove pitman arm .

clean mud/dirt from seal area .

remove snap ring .

BIG drain pan to catch fluid under the box .

fluid in system .

fire up and turn the wheel to the bump stop of the box . then bounce it off the stop with the steering wheel . . . .and POP the seal should come right out by its self.

old school gm tech showed me this trick years ago .


NOTE : orignal poster never said if input or output seal tho .

[Edahall]

It's the input seal that is leaking in mine.

[aggie91]

There is a great How To thread on resealing a power steering gear on here. Ill see if I can find it for you.

[aggie91]

I found it, but let me make this statement before I add the link to it...Photosuckit has made this thread nearly useless. All the pictures are no longer there....

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=619634

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by aggie91

I found it, but let me make this statement before I add the link to it...Photosuckit has made this thread nearly useless. All the pictures are no longer there....

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=619634

Next time I do another one of those I'll snap new pictures and host them at my good place and make a new thread.

[aggie91]

Kevin, You are the man!

[70K10Hunter]

Originally Posted by sweetk30

you sir do it the hard way . . . .

remove pitman arm .

clean mud/dirt from seal area .

remove snap ring .

BIG drain pan to catch fluid under the box .

fluid in system .

fire up and turn the wheel to the bump stop of the box . then bounce it off the stop with the steering wheel . . . .and POP the seal should come right out by its self.

old school gm tech showed me this trick years ago .


NOTE : orignal poster never said if input or output seal tho .

Not hardly.....I was referring to the input shaft. I too know many shortcuts that I have learned and USED with great success, that so called shortcut works about a third of the time but you ALWAYS get the MESS.
No thanks

[Edahall]

Thanks for the tips. I changed out the input seal and put her all back together and it's leak free. It took me about 4 hrs to do the job. Fairly simple job IMO but if I were to do the job again, I would not remove the power steering box from the frame. I would have changed it in place. It was a challenge getting the box bolted back to the frame. Had to use rachet straps to lift it into place and it was horribly greasy from leaking for several years.