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TR2/3/3A Steering box oil seal & same seal for input shaft in tranny

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Got_All_4

Got_All_4

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I rebuilt my steering box several years ago and much to my surprise I had problems with it leaking around the pitman arm seal and all of the oil has leaked out now. Maybe only 2k as far as the miles on the rebuild. Anyway the box is out of the car now and before I replace it I want to fix this problem. Of course a new seal was installed at the rebuild time. Any one experience this same problem and how did you fix it?

Many years ago and probably on another forum some had the same problem and solved it by putting a grease fitting on the cover and filling the box with grease. Said it worked fine and thought everything stayed better lubricated. I would have thought it would have made the steering stiff.

Concerning input shaft seal I noticed when putting my transmission back together that the seal is the same as the steering box seal on the pitman arm. (Moss shows the same part number for both) My concern or thinking is that that seal would be designed to turn at lower RPMs like the pitman arm and not stand up to the speed of the input shaft. Am I off base here?
 
Must be some mistake, those are not the same seals. My Moss catalog shows 520-060 for one and 520-040 for the other.

But both seals are general purpose "off the shelf" seals. I'm confident that they are designed for higher rpm (with adequate lubrication of course) even in the rocker arm application.

I agree about the grease making the steering harder; but that may be a good tradeoff for some folks.

As far as the rocker shaft seal leaking, I feel it's due to wear in the shaft. IMO you need to either polish the shaft until there is no mark from where the previous seal rode, or else install the new seal such that it rides on a smooth part of the shaft. That black line is enough to allow oil to seep through it, even when you can't feel it with your fingernail.

Mine does leak a bit, but I don't mind topping up the box every couple of years. I'm not even sure if it's sneaking out past the seal, or the compression fitting at the front (probably both). I also use Valvoline full synthetic GL5 gear oil.
 
Many years ago and probably on another forum some had the same problem and solved it by putting a grease fitting on the cover and filling the box with grease. Said it worked fine and thought everything stayed better lubricated. I would have thought it would have made the steering stiff.
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My steering box was filled with grease & i had a grease fitting mounted thru the fill plug on the box.
the steering was very stiff, had a lot of play & the grease was a mess, over time, as it leaked out & blew back.

I had my steering box rebuilt by Macy's Garage. (One of the best moves I've made) removing the zerk & going back to gear oil ( followed Randall's lead & used GL5). Coupled with replacing the steering linkage silent block bushings with Delrin bushings. The steering is as good as it gets.
 
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