Newbie from South Africa

[4Cruisers]

My powersteering gearbox is leaking, quite a lot all of a sudden. I adjusted the play a bit a while ago - could this have caused the leak?

It looks like its leaking at the input shaft side.

Now, is it a simple seal replacement DIY job? keeping in mind I am not very good with a spanner

Any assistance will be helpfull fellow MUDH8TERS

IIRC @NeverGiveUpYota did a great job on a rebuild recently, don't have the thread handy but a search will show it.

 

[Willem]

Decided to take off the steering box today, thought it was going to be a difficult job, but to my surprise it was a breeze.

I bought a proper pitman arm puller - heavy duty and it worked like a charm - thought it was going to be a headache and it would be quite stuck, but with 2 people's leverage it popped easily.

So it took me and my brother around 20 minutes and off it came.

Now to find a place that can recon the box, because it had quite a bit of play on it, and I dont think this is going to be an easy DIY thing.

 

[FJACS]

Not that this is causing your problem, but it looks like the engine swap retained the Toyota PS reservoir mounted remotely on the firewall. What PS pump is it using?

 

[Willem]

That reservoir is actually aftermarket fitted by a shop that does power steering systems on trucks etc.

When I got the cruiser the pump was knackered and made one helluva noise, so I took it to the place in haste to see if they could fix or recon it and they said they cant recon the old GM pump and modified another vehicle's (I think some korean car) pump and fitted new hydraulic pypes and they did that reservoir because the GM pump's reservoir is part of the pump itself. Its a bit small and also not as quiet as it should be.

What I then did is googled and youtube'd like mad and found that to redo the GM pump is not that difficult to do, so I took it apart and replaced all the seals, and had the shaft bush replaced and the actual shaft had some uneven wear so I had that fixed (polished) at an engineering place.

Now I am sure that the GM pump is ok, its just now a matter of refitting it, after I am done with the steering box - I want to refit the GM pump because its got a double pulley which runs the AC pump, also need to get the whole AC system fixed but at a later stage when I have some $$$ again .

 

[Kaasdief]

Hallo Willem!

 

[Willem]

Hallo Willem!

Hallo Kaasdief

Sien jy is ook van SA - PTA?

 

[Kaasdief]

Bluebull....

 

[Willem]

Got the steering box reconditioned last week, fitted it but now I am struggling with PS pump - its making a hell of a racket when I start the engine and turn the steering.

I first filled the reservoir up, jacked both front wheels in the air and without running the engine, turned the steering lock to lock probably 20 or more times to get the system bled and the air out. Then started the engine and the wheels still in the air turned a couple times lock to lock but still the pump aint happy...

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Willem]

After some more bleeding and bleeding, I managed to get all the air out the system and PS pump is not moaning anymore.

Front side shaft seals started leaking a bit of the diff oil, so I had both sides replaced. When the mechanic took them apart to do the seals, they saw that the steering knuckle top and bottom bearings were really tired, and one bolt were stripped where the tierod bolts onto the knuckle. That was replaced as well, which was also a large contributing factor to the excessive play on the steering - now it drives a lot better, and I dont have to correct it all the time when driving straight ahead.

 

[Willem]

Just perhaps when the $$$ recovers a bit, I want to look into fitting a "return to centre" type steering damper.


I am led to believe that this will help with the steering a bit, since the Spring Over Axle conversion and running 35" tires kind of made the steering not want to return to center on its own.

Your thoughts on these, will it be beneficial?

 

[Willem]

Did some off-roading last weekend with my truck.

 

[morganism]

Don't tighten up your belts, the bushings will go, and you power steering pump will leak all over the air pump if you have one.