[91 F-150 5.8]

I'm having trouble getting the old seals removed from the sector shaft- right now I'm stuck on the washer. After a search one guy said he turned the wheel all the way to the right and they popped out. Tried that, no luck, then tried turning it left, no luck.

I'm certain that the snap ring groove is as clean as it can be so I don't think there's anything holding it up there.

The only thing left I can think to do is remove the sector shaft cover from on top of the gear and pull the whole shaft out, but if this is going to create alignment/steering issues, I want to make that a last resort.

Any ideas?

 

..any...ideas?...anyone.......?

 

So... nobody can help me out with this?

 

Did you try turning the steering with the engine running and fluid in the system?

 

There could be more wrong then just the seal. The sector shaft will wear out and start to drag on the lower part of the seal. How many miles do you have? You might be better off with a reman box for 150.00.

 

Lazy K- no, I haven't tried turning it with the engine running and fluid in the system. Maybe that's why turning the wheel didn't work the first time. I've already drained the system but I'll try refilling it and see what happens.

Ford390- 130k to my knowledge- far as I know it's the original gear box. Perhaps there's more wrong than just the seal, but right now I don't have the money to purchase a reman unit. Besides, from the searches I ran on this subject, it's my understanding that the "reman" boxes are basically just resealed, aren't they?

My dad loaned me a couple of small [but strong] magnets. I'm going to use them to try and pull the washer out before trying anything more complicated. I guess if worse comes to worse, I can just drop the gear box.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 

Well the small magnets my dad gave me were still too big to fit between the shaft and casing, and refilling the system with fluid then turning the wheel didn't do any good either.

But, I just said F it and dropped the whole gear box. Once out, I removed the sector shaft cover and shaft- after that changing the seals was easy. I guess it was just too snug of a fit to pop out without removing the shaft. I just made damn sure to keep everything clean when I pulled the box apart to avoid getting dirt and crud in the system. I've now bled the system and filled it to capacity- everything's working great and NO LEAKS!

Thanks again for the help guys- I really appreciate it.

 

Is it possible to remove the sector shaft with the steering box in the truck?
I don't want to remove the box if I don't have to...

Thanks for any help...

 

On my 91 F250 Diesel I was able to remove the sector shaft (sneaked it past the radiator) to replace the sector shaft seal.
1)remove pitman arm with a puller (after removing nut with 1 5/16 socket)
2)remove two bolts holding top cover (3/4 swivel socket, long extension)
3)pull top cover with sector shaft out of steering box
4)go back under truck, remove snap ring and bad seal
5)tap new seal into place, tap dust boot (?) over it.
6)replace snap ring
7)go back up top, slide sector shaft back into box, tighten two retaining bolts on cover
8)try to put pitman arm back on lower sector shaft
9)jack front of truck up so I can put pitman arm back on.
10)tighten sector shaft to pitman arm nut
11)fill with fluid, start truck, check for leaks. Top off fluid.
And that is about it. One thing I did leave out is that I removed the P/S pump because I thought it was in the way. (It wasn't)
But while I had the pump off I found that the P/S return hose to the pump was hard as a rock and I cracked it while moving the pump around.
Not a bad job, but boy is the underside of my truck grimy... (Ugh!)

 

make sure you tighten EVERYTHING on reassembly...
Turned out I had a small drip because I left a P/S hose a bit loose...

 

I'm starting on this project as well... I have the same problem with the seal not coming out easily. After doing some reading, one person mentioned that they drilled a small hole into the seal and put a screw in it to help get the seal out. I'm about to try that in the morning...

 

That is why you take the sector shaft all the way out of the box.
Then you use a long drift to tap the seal out from above!
Find a suitable driver to tap the seal back in from below and re-assemble...

 

Drockstar- If the screw idea doesn't work, dropping the gear box isn't that hard to do. If your truck is a 91 F150 like mine, remove the inlet and return lines and there's 3 bolts that run thru the frame to mount the box. Just make sure you either have blocks in place or are able to support the weight in some way because it's a lot heavier than it looks. If you didn't get the steering shaft popped loose before dropping the gear box, you'll need to pull and maneuver the gear box as you're dropping it to break it free.

Once you have the sector shaft cover loose [which DOES NOT include loosening the nut in the center of the cover], it takes some working back and forth to get the shaft to pull free. Notice that there are 3 grooves in the shaft inside the box and 3 teeth on the sector shaft- it's pretty self explanatory but these line up with each other.

Remove old seal and install the new- washer and lock ring included. Then carefully work the sector shaft into the new seal. A small dab of fresh PS fluid spread around the inside of the new seal will aid with this. What I had to do to replace the sector shaft completely was rotate the shaft in the gear box slightly upward to allow the grooves and teeth to align easier, then slide the shaft back into place and bolt down the cover.

After you've reinstalled the gear box, hook up the return line and then add fluid directly to the box thru the inlet hose hole. To avoid a mess add fluid slowly as it doesn't take much to fill it. Then hook up the inlet hose and remaining steering linkage. I don't know about you but I don't have a torque wrench that would go as high as the three hundred and some odd ft-lbs that the pitman arm nut is supposed to be torqued at, so I just used a big crescent wrench and tightened as much as I could.

For bleeding make sure the wheels are off the ground and with the motor running move the wheel back and forth as far as it will go about 20 times. Left to right to left= 1. If that still doesn't bleed the system, what I had to do was pull the INLET hose from the gear box and I could see air bubbling out thru the hole. After it quit bubbling I reattached the inlet hose, ran the wheel back and forth a few more times and it was bled.

Hope this quick suggestion turned novel helps. Good luck.