Hi all,

New member here. Just purchased a 1977 F150 Custom and plan on restoring it back to original condition, but first I need to fix some pesky oil leaks. One of the major leaks is coming from the steering gears and I want to try and replace this myself and was hoping for some guidance from others that have done this.

I have not worked on my own car for over 30 years and maybe this is not the best first thing to try, but I think I will give it a try.

Thanks everyone and have a great day and happy new year!

Mike

 

Where is it leaking from?
If it is leaking from where the steering column goes into the box that is a relatively easy seal to replace as long as you DON'T try to disassemble the steering box to do it!
There are actually two pieces to replace. The first "seal" that you see is actually a dust shield, the true seal is underneath.
First, remove the steering gear from the truck. Then take a sharpened punch and pry out the dust shield. Then remove the snap ring and punch and pry out the seal.
Install the new parts in reverse order.
If its leaking at the sector shaft there may be another issue besides the leaking seal.
The sector shaft doesn't ride in any kind of a bearing or bushing. This is a weak spot in the design of this steering gear. The shaft rides directly in the cast iron housing. When the shaft wears the housing itself wears too and the seal begins to leak. If there is play in the shaft replacing the seal won't do much good. Its time for a rebuilt steering box.
And as far as rebuilts go, FORGET getting a rebuilt from the parts house. Hard parts haven't been available for years. All these units are, are resealed NOT rebuilt.
The ONLY rebuilt steering gears come from Red Head Steering Gear in Seattle, WA. They actually fix the design problems with these gears. They bore out the housing and put bearings in for the sector shaft to ride on and they also grind the sector raceway and install oversize *****. So these are TRUE rebuilt units, not just resealed. The funny part is the price is competitive with the local parts house, plus shipping. Mine was $226.00 plus $48.00 shipping. You can send them yours and they'll rebuild it and return or you can have them ship you one from stock and then return yours as a core.
They do excellent work.
Here is an exploded illustration of the steering gear from the Ford parts catalog.
Click on the .pdf link to view.
BTW Welcome to FTE, lots of good, knowledgeable people here.

 

Thanks for the welcome and I hope to learn much from everyone!

I really do not have any idea where it is leaking from to be honest. When I look at it from the top there is fluid running down from around the raised area where that shaft goes in.

Good to know about rebuilts - If I need to replace mine I will surely contact Red Head as you mention.

Not sure I will know if it needs to be replaced or if I can put new seals in and be fine.

Also, do I have to know where the pitman arm is in relation to the gear if I am replacing it? Many of the manuals say to matchmark the gear and pitman arm, but if I am replacing the gears then what would I matchmark?

Thanks again,

Mike

 

Power steering leaks can be difficult to locate; the place the fluid is dripping from is not always where it's actually leaking from. I went through this a couple years ago. First I had to replace the pump because the return port on the pump housing was cracked. 6 months later I replaced the steering box because it started leaking as well.

The pitman arm attaches directly to the steering gear. It connects the output shaft of the steering gear to the rest of the steering linkage. You must remove the pitman arm from the steering gear to change out the steering gear, first by removing the large nut and then by using a pitman arm puller.

The pitman arm is splined; on my '79 I believe it was keyed, so there was only one way it could be oriented. Re-torquing the pitman arm nut took a lot of force. Be very careful when removing and re-installing the gear as it's very heavy and awkward to work with; you also don't want to be underneath it if it falls. Welcome to FTE!

 

fmc400 is correct. The sector shaft has a blind spline that matches a blind spline in the pitman arm. It only goes on one way.

 

Thanks for the explanation - makes sense. I think it is something that I can do and will give it a try and report back on what happens.

 

If you're going to replace the shaft seals, DO NOT disassemble the gearbox. When you take the four bolts out that hold the control valve (basic p/n 3D517 in the illustration) to the lower part of the box and pull it out the ***** (p/n 3647) will fall out. There aren't just four like in the illustration, there are more like 20-30 and these have to go back in just so or the steering gear can "lock-up", usually while in the middle of a turn.
I'm not trying to discourage you from trying to repair your truck, just want to caution you about the pitfalls you can come across.
I've rebuilt (uhh, resealed is more like it) 4 of these boxes, they can be a real PITA if you go in without knowing what to expect.
Good luck.

 

Since I really have no clue as to where the leak is I will likely replace the unit with a rebuilt - seems to be safer for me

Spending a couple hundred every 34 years isn't too bad

Mike - the diagram you sent looks way more involved then I am willing to tackle to rebuild.

Does anything need to be greased or lubricated when replacing the gears?

thanks again

Mike

 

No, the p. steering is lubricated by the oil flowing through it from the power steering pump.

 

Just wondered how much Red Head charged for a core.

 

To be honest, I don't remember how much the core charge was. I bought mine a couple of years ago and between then and now I've bought a ton of other parts for my project.
I honestly don't remember and right now I'm 650 miles from home so can't run to my file and look it up.
BTW welcome to FTE.

 

YUP thanks, I got mine in and installed it is great!

 

Congratulations. Thanks for the update, you're going to see a big difference.

 

So .... how do you like that new Red Head Steering Box Steve?

I too have a '77 F150 4x4 I've had since '86 and even though the upgrade 78-79 style steering helped, that Red Head box I installed last December really tightened it up.

And Welcome!