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Leaking steering box?

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J

JNob

Freshman Member
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The other day I walked into the garage to find a big puddle of dark, thick oil under my left front tire and bumper bracket. The bottom of the idler arm is soaked so I'm assuming a seal has gone bad in the steering box somewhere. Anyone have any experience with this situation? The picture in the manual show the grill removed and the whole steering structure being removed through the grill opening. I'm hoping that's not the only solution......

Thanks,
John Noblin
'65 BJ8 owned since '69
Jackson, MS
 
Anyone have any experience with this situation?
Just about everyone own a Healey :laugh:

The picture in the manual show the grill removed and the whole steering structure being removed through the grill opening.

Yes but note!!! that the radiator is still in place in the picture. However, the written instructions tell you to remove it is not necessary to remove the radiator to extract the steering assy it is done as shown in that fiure.


I'm hoping that's not the only solution..

....Naa, :nonod: You can drain the box, remove the cross rod from the steering arm and then remove the steering arm from the drop shaft. now you can extract the old seal and install a
new one.--Keoke-- :driving:

Thanks,
 
Seal replacement starts on page 66 https://www.rfdm.com/gallery/album201?page=66 , then jumps to page 75 https://www.rfdm.com/gallery/album201?page=75

Since there's usually wear on the shaft, I install a pair of new seals; the first pushed further up in the bore to stop the bulk of the flow, and another to catch anything leaking past the first seal.

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Yeah Randy, me too!!! the other thing those smaller seals do is settle in on an unworn portion of the shaft and being narrower they tend to increase the sealing pressure too'---Keoke-- :driving:
 
Factory paint/coating applied to the seal cup, I guess.

Not sure what blue/green grease you're referring to. I always put Parker O-ring lube on lip seals before installation, but it's a brownish-yellow (NEVER EVER install a seal__or O-ring__dry).

Sometimes, if I'm that forward-thinking, I put Loctite 518 flange sealant on the outer perimeter of the seal cup, but I didn't see a picture of it for this job...
 
Randy, Are the two seals you installed the same as listed in the Moss catalogue? Or are they something different? Maybe thinner than the Moss variety? Like apparently everyone else, this is a job I need to do soon. I've got the same oil puddle but I am just happy it's not coming from the engine....
 
As for o-ring installations, I have used petroleum jelly (aka Vaseline) for many, many years. Has always worked just fine for me. Is that Parker Lube somewhat similar to petroleum jelly?
And Randy - 2 seals - very creative!!! I will definitely keep that tip in mind in the future.
 
Yes, the standard cataloged seal for the application, just order two (2) of them.

The Parker lube is a petroleum product, and it is somewhat jelly-like, only much more tenacious (stringly), though you wouldn't want to keep it in the medicine cabinet for human consumption :wink:

As for the double seal idea, it stems from the shift selector rod on BMW's ZF 5-speed; they start weeping (making a mess of the undercarriage, and I hate working on dirty cars...) and are a real pita to remove without scratching the rod. However, the bore is deep enough to push the original seal in a little bit and put a fresh seal in the place of the original. Works like a champ, and no risk to the selector rod. At a later date, during a routine overhaul with the xmsn taken apart, both seals can be easily knocked out from the inside.
 
I have the same issue and have been putting a very thick bearing lube into the steering box. :nonono:

Initially the steering boxes were fitted with a grease fitting on them. However, it was found when using grease as the lubricant the gears pushed the grease out of the gear's mating surfaces and the boxes essentially ran dry and failed. This practice was immediately stopped and oil has been used every since.--Fwiw--Keoke-- :driving:
 
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