Ever wonder what to do when your power steering box starts leaking at the spud shaft? Below is a pic of the valve body that houses the spud shaft. The valve body consists of the large lock nut, the thrust assembly, the 'barrel', the spud shaft, the small piston, and a couple of rubber seals. The spud shaft sticks through the thrust assembly. A flat rubber seal prevents fluid from leaking out around the spud shaft. The 'small' piston has three sets of teflon seals which overlay three round rubber seals (not visiable). The teflon seals are a little tuff to get on, but boiling them for about 5 minutes helps. That piston and seals are where the high pressure line and return line come in and return to the pump. The small piston does not move back and forth put only rotates. When the steering wheel is turned, the piston turns. On the end of the spud shaft that extends out the bottom of the piston, are two openings and one small groove. The openings and the groove fit onto the worm drive that operates the rotaing circular ball bearings housed in a large piston. Now if fuild is leaking out the spud shaft, it could be just the flat rubber seal on the thrust assembly or the first telon seal. Seal kits, $30 - $60, will have those teflon seals and the underlying rubber seals. The whole valve assembly can be removed from the saginaw box easly and repaired. However, don't ever turn the saginaw box upside down with the valve assembly removed, unless you like dozens of little ball bearings bouncing all over the place ;p
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