Manual Steering Box Leak - Grease? (1 Viewer)

[GRM]

After 54 years the manual steering box in my ‘40 sprung a leak and puked the original fluid all over the floor.

I have a power steering box to swap in, but that isn’t a project for today. My goal is to enjoy the ‘40 this summer with this box. I called around and found that other than a national sector shaft seal, the parts are not available. My experience says once one seal goes, the rest are soon to follow, so I don’t expect this to hold fluid anymore.

On old Chevy’s I would rebuild manual boxes with grease. Since I expect this box to leak again, is there a recommendation of a grease to use? Is grease ok in a manual 40-series box? Maybe a CV axle joint grease?

 

[charliemeyer007]

I like Mystic JT6 - you can hardly wash it off your hands with gasoline.

 

[duncanrm]

The steering box in my HJ47 has been filled with grease for the past 12 years.

 

[65swb45]

After 54 years the manual steering box in my ‘40 sprung a leak and puked the original fluid all over the floor.

I have a power steering box to swap in, but that isn’t a project for today. My goal is to enjoy the ‘40 this summer with this box. I called around and found that other than a national sector shaft seal, the parts are not available. My experience says once one seal goes, the rest are soon to follow, so I don’t expect this to hold fluid anymore.

On old Chevy’s I would rebuild manual boxes with grease. Since I expect this box to leak again, is there a recommendation of a grease to use? Is grease ok in a manual 40-series box? Maybe a CV axle joint grease?

View attachment 3916085

I still rebuild those boxes Garrett. I don't sell any of the parts, but I still have everything, including NOS sector rollers and bronze bushings for the side covers (where they often wear)

My RX: change the seal and refill with gear oil, wait and see how long it takes until it leaks again. To me, grease in the steering box is a duct-tape-level bandaid, trail-level fix.

 

[GRM]

I still rebuild those boxes Garrett. I don't sell any of the parts, but I still have everything, including NOS sector rollers and bronze bushings for the side covers (where they often wear)

My RX: change the seal and refill with gear oil, wait and see how long it takes until it leaks again. To me, grease in the steering box is a duct-tape-level bandaid, trail-level fix.

Solid advice. What gear oil do you recommend? Basic 90w?

 

[65swb45]

Yes. And FTR, I would like to buy your box when you do the PS conversion. My son lives in Santa Clara, so it shouldn’t require shipping.

 

[GRM]

I’m back to working on my 40 and replacing the pitman arm seal. The og seal from toyota is not available, and the parts store catalog has multiple seals that show they fit. But only one does.

I bought every seal on rockauto and I found that SKF 12705 is close enough and the seal I decided to run.

Hope this seals it up and it holds 80/90 gear oil

 

[GRM]

Years ago I did a sector shaft seal replacement on my old mini truck. I had this same problem and fluid was puking out the box. After searching on how to drive the seal in, I found a good trick is to use a piece of schedule 80 pipe as a seal driver.

Funny enough, when looking through my drawer of homemade tools, there was the modified pipe adapter I made in 2013. Worked perfect on the fj40 seal too.

Tech Tip of the Day: Sector Shaft Seal

I always feel like these easy projects cause the biggest headaches on my projects, so here are my tips for replacing a sector shaft seal. The all too common happened on my Toyota: I had a leaking sector shaft seal. Usually the seal leaks because the box has 200k miles on it and every seal is...

www.pirate4x4.com