Ok so today murphy struck once again... Dad opened the car door on his bronco and I now have a 5" diameter dent in my passenger door.... a few months back he put a dent in the pass side upper bed side... My highboy was dent free till then.... If anyone knows where to get touch up paint leme know cuz I have a few areas to fix now... Original color was a light blue metallic, PO painted it Dark blue metallic which I think was the dark blue for the 74 year.

Anyway, was driving around with my new motor and noticed a small puddle on the floor when I got home. Its PS fluid. Its leaking from the return line fitting on my new red head steering box. Now unfortunately the highboy has a 2wd box not a 4x4 box cuz the way the frame was boxed in and stuff I cant get a 4wd one to work SO Im stuck with this 2wd box... I pulled the fitting out of the return line and it seemed fine but I went and got a new return line and hooked it up. Same thing. Its leaking not from the threads but from the hose going through the fitting When the someone in the cab turns the steering wheel and pressure is put into the box, I can see fluid start to come out inbetween the fitting and flared hose that goes through it... Really starting to annoy me seeing its a brand new red head box....

Also, when the wheels are turned its like the box kinda torques/moves a bit on the frame even though the bolts are tightened down a lot! I had a shop torque them down and another issue was one hole had stripped threads even though its a bran new box That I got from red head myself so they put the bolt in and then tightened it down with a nut on the back. Is that ok?

 

As far as your hose. What year make and model is it from? Are you sure it's not a newer metric O-ring fitting?

 

Well.... Good question. From red head it came as a 74 2wd box... Would that be metric? Stock size seemed to fit.

EDIT: the new hose I got is the stock one for a 74 2wd box. I don't recall the actual size though.

 

Also now that I think of it, is it possible red head made the fitting size metric because the stock flared hose and fitting size seemed to fit in almost to smooth... But then again its a clean box with no gunk in the threads too...

I wonder if red head switched it to a O ring fitting instead of a flared but id doubt it...

 

I believe the threads are the same it's the internal part that's different. There is no flare inside they look like someone drilled out the flare with a bigger bit. and left a small shelf at the bottom of the threads.

 

You think thats what red head does? So would I use the flared hose and fitting and put a o ring under it?

 

Just pulled the hoses and the fitting looks the same as the old box.... I think when they poised it in it didn't seat right. That's my best guess

 

Those flare fittings can be finicky. Might be a good time to have new hoses made. Those flared hoses are only supposed to be torqued down a certain amount of times. I'd bet the flare itself is just worn out. If it's just the return you can get that at any auto store cheap. The pressure side is the harder one to procure.

 

Well its a new red head box and its a new flared fitting like I said above. I'm going to try a fitting that came with my hydroboost set up hopefully it works. Ill report back in about a hour. I also gotta redo one end of the braided hose for the pressure line -.-