My '79 F-150 has a major power steering gear box leak. I believe it's the seal where the steering shaft couples with the steering column. What is the proceedure for changing the seal? Is it a common problem with the '79s? Any help would be greatly appreciated... it's got a factory 460 w/C-6.

 

Mine was leaking from there too. I put PS stop leak in it, it seemed to take care of it. My truck sat for a while perhaps the seal just needed conditioning but for $5 I think its worth the chance. It was a good place to start I thought. I got it at Wal-Mart, the best one they had. Hope that helps as for changing it I'm not sure.





79 Bronco and 76 F100

 

>My '79 F-150 has a major power steering gear box leak. I
>believe it's the seal where the steering shaft couples with
>the steering column. What is the proceedure for changing the
>seal? Is it a common problem with the '79s? Any help would
>be greatly appreciated... it's got a factory 460 w/C-6.

The kit is about $8 to fix your problem, $30 to rebuild whole gear. It does require some major dismantling. Try the power steering miracle in a bottle first (let it leak out the whole contents of the bottle, by then it should have worked if not, your f**ked)

The hard way...(this way sux, trust me)
1. Buy a chilton, or haynes shop manual (the seal kit will have same directions too)
2. remove pitman arm
3 disconnect power steering hoses
4. unbolt steering shaft
5. remove steering gear from truck
6. look at top of gear and count how many threads are showing on that nut that sits on the top
7 take that nut off and also the 2 bolts holding down the cover
8. push on the shaft where the pitman arm would sit and remove shaft from gear.
9. remove bolts by area where hoses attach to gear
10. pull on same area, DO NOT ALLOW SHAFT TO TURN, IF YOU DO, YOU WILL MAKE A BIG MESS WITH BALL BEARINGS!!!
11. with piston assembly out, go ahead and pull on the area I just told you not to pull on, you should find either 29, or 27 bearings. clean and set aside.
12. Take the shaft assy, and with a small allen wrench, remove set screw
13. Mark area on retainer ring for where the set screw is.
14. Place in a vice, use a flat chisel, beat (gently) the retailer ring out(carefully) It threads on BTW
15. Remove shaft from case.
16. Remove snap ring, replace seals (there is a total of 3 pcs here.)
17. Put shaft back into housing, re-install retaining ring, making sure you line up your marks you made in step 13.
18. On piston assembly, remove 2 screws, and remove the little piece of sheet metal covering tube
19. Put shaft back into piston
20. Place all 27 or 29 bearings into tube, if you run out of room, turn shaft a few turns. they will all fit back into tube, but dont back shaft out too far or you will have to start over
21. put sheet metal cap back onto tube
22. Insert piston assy back into housing and tighten bolts
23. Insert pitman arm rod back into gear
24. Put cover back on, (threading bolt over cover) and torque bolts
25. Set nut back to its origional location
26. reinstall everthing else
27. watch in dismay that the gear is now leaking from someplace else because you were a cheap ba$+@rd and didnt spend the extra $22 to replace all of the seals.
28. Play with threaded stud/nut some more because that controls you pre-load (or something like that) in the gear that allows your steering to re-center itself

The easy way.
1. skip steps 2,3, 5 through 15, 17 through 25 above(in other words do only steps 4, 16, 26 and 27)

Tony

'74 F250. 460, "beater"
'73 F250, "midnight auto"
'77 F250, 460 transplantee, "Flamer"

 

Masterbeavis is correct.Another option is to install remanufactured box.Quicker & more expensive,but sometimes safer.

 

Thanks for all the replies!!... I shall try the bottle fix first and hope the power steering box gods smile upon my old truck.

 

I tried the bottle fix too--slowed it down some but its only a matter of time. I am going to go for a rebuild.