I am making steady progress on the rebuild of my 51 F1. One thing is driving me crazy-all of the tiny little fluid leaks!

The rebuilt steering box drips about a drop every 3-4 days.
The rebuilt 3 speed sideloader has a very small leak at the back where the countershaft and the reverse gear shaft penetrate the housing-about a heavy drop for each hour of run time.
There is a small leak at the oil pan to block-about a drop a day.

Everything is rebuilt with new gaskets. I used a thin coat of RTV (for gear oil) at the rear end, transmission, and steering box gaskets. I have torqued every bolt to spec.

So-are these little leaks common? What do you all do?

I want to take things back apart and reseal and/or replace the gaskets, but I wonder if that is a fool's errand?

Thoughts and opinions and experiences?

John

 

What are you running for lube in the steering box? 90 weight gear oil will tend to seep or leak.

Better: steering gear lubricant, corn head grease, or equivalent to NGLI #00 grease (aka "self leveling".) Regular moly chassis grease NGLI #2 is too thick and will channel away from where it needs to be.

 

The older oil was much thicker and therefore less chance to leak. However I do feel that most of these old trucks leaked a little here and there. When I rebuilt my 50 3 spd tranny I saw on a site or maybe it was on Van Pelt that you can use some of that permatex "Right Stuff" gasket maker to lightly cover the counter shafts where they are flush with the case. I didn't do that at first but sure enough after a week or two I notice a drop on the floor. I covered the ends as suggested (can't remember where I saw it) and the tiny seep is gone. I put it on so lightly that you can't even tell it's there. I got lucky on my steering box, no leaks there yet and I'm running regular 90W gear oil. I had a leak on my rebuilt 226 oil pan at the clean out cover. I lightly torqued each nut around the cleanout and it stopped. I think the key is to start within the torque specs and deal with the leaks on an as come basis without distorting anything by tightening too hard. I'm worried about the rope seal form the crank but time will tell I guess. I haven't tried to run the 226 yet....soon though.

 

They leak. They did when new. Deal with it...

 

That's right they do tend to weep a little bit

 

After all most of them were parked outside!
TractormanBill

 

Think positive, your rear end and radiator are bone dry.

JB

 

Thanks guys for setting me straight. I sort of figured that the leaking was normal, but I needed confirmation before I did anything stupid.

I will try sealing the back of the transmission; the rest I'll live with.

Got lots of cardboard, so I'm good to go!

 

I don't mean to be negative but none of the components that you mentioned were designed to leak, at least not new or reconditioned properly. I'm sure that there are others on here that have no drips from those components. The problem is usually wear or corrosion on the shaft sealing surface. The question is do you want to tear your steering box or transmission completely apart in order to eliminate a slight drip. For some of us the answer would be yes and others no. If you are in the later category then go to Ross's solution.

 

When you tear down one of these mechanical darlings , you notice all the crud and gunk on all the grease and oil holding parts . That is because most of them leaked at some point. The difference is most of the old roads were dirt ,dust , mud , not pavement like today. Over time ,enough builds up to stop the seeping. When these trucks were new, most people did not have cement garage floors and might not have noticed the seeping. Get off the pavement and go down a dusty road for about 20 miles. That should at least slow down the seeping.

 

I don't agree completely. They were not designed to NOT leak. For instance, the trans shafts. It would have been simple enough to put O-rings on the shafts, but they didn't. The crank seals are rope seals, which are not positive seals. Components like the steering box end plate are stamped steel, not machined castings, and bound to leak. These were built to a very competitive price point that didn't allow for special efforts to curb oil leaks. And I think leakage was just accepted back then.

 

They were not designed to leak and I'm sure that they didn't in testing, but in some areas of the real world some do drip. I don't know why they did what they did in design back then but, yes, today we know better ways.

 

On your steering box is it leaking on the sector adjustment nut? If so did you use the cap nut or the regular open nut that a lot of repro parts places sell? The open nut will leak.

My newly rebuilt engine is leaking on the oil pan where the dipstick tube fitting is riveted to the side. Shame on me. I knew to drill out the rivets, change the gasket, silicon from the inside. But I checked it. The rivets were tight. I poured water in it and it didn't leak. All the OE I had read told me to do it, but I didn't. Now I have a leak. It's driving me nuts. So bad that I may pull the engine off the frame, pull the pan, and change it. I'm gonna try to peen it and/or inject clear silicon in the joint, but I know it won't work.

Finally, I had a couple of drips on the transmission cluster and idler gear shafts I smeared silicon on them and wiped it clean and they appear to be holding so far.

Keith

 

It's a FORD they have a tendency to mark their territory

 

Dogs and Fords. It is going to happen.