steering box

[Matt_H]

well my steering box now leaks the fluid almost as fast as I can put it in so I guess it needs to be replaced..

I had a chat with safari engineering and they'vequoted £180 for the recon box and £120 to fit (all plus VAT)  Thebox itself is not too much more than I found on the web.  I like to try things myself but not that great at new stuff without a hand.....

Anyone done it - what kind of job is it?  Anything complicated or difficult and are there any pitfalls or things to watch out for?  (Anyone want to do it for me? ;)  )

Thanks
Matthew

[hobbit]

Bit far away to do it for you, but not a difficult job, handy with a second pair of hands though, if possible see if the replacement box has a drop arm fitted, and the same one as yours, if its the other type you will have to change the track rod end that fits into it.
Its not always possible to remove the arm of your box.

Disconnect the steering arm on the top of the box from the spline, two pipes to take off, the mains bolts are down the side of the chassis behind the front offside wheel

Make sure that the steering bar comes out of the steering arm ok, drop the panhard rod for easier access, the you will feel how heavy the unit is with the replacement one, handy for 2 people, harder on your own though

Refitting ok, make sure that the pipes on top do not cross thread the holes, and check the state of the o-rings, one of mine was a bit chewed and needed replacing

Remember after you have done, you may have to undo the steering wheel connecting arm to re-centre the steering wheel

Refill the resevoir bottle, I bled the system on the square nut on the top of the steering box, then just turn the steering full left to full right a couple of times, then top up the fluid to the correct level

Anything I've missed I'm sure somebody will add, hopefully

[Matt_H]

doesn't sound that difficult to do... thats of course if the rust monkeys haven't got in anywhere.  I had to drop the big bar thig that bolts to the steering box and chasis to fit a steering guard last weekend and need to heat it with oxy-aceta-whats-it to get the middle bolt out!

One place said it was a real pig to get everything lined up again so that put me off a bit - wonder if that was just to convince me to pay them (no it wasn't safari!)

M

[hobbit]

A good soaking of spray oil should help the bolts that go through the chassis, they are threaded straight into the steering box itself, so apart from being very tight once they crack they shoudl come away fairly easily

Its awkward to lift in and out but if somebody is on the top to guide the steering bar into the spindle for you makes it easier, if you leave the bolted arm on the steering box and just undo the nut at the side, it helps to support the box until you drop it out

[karloss]

Its not always possible to remove the arm of your box.

It's always possible to remove the arm Kev, it's just not always pretty" :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[Matt_H]

my problem with the suport arm thingy (not sure what you call it) was that the bolt was rusted inside the hole no oil would get in..oxy was the only way to get it out heating it red hot to crush the rust.. Wish I had the balls to have my own gas setup!

Just not sure if I should try this one myself or not, things seem easy then take me about 4 days.. at least its not my only car :-)

Thanks for your advice.
Matthew

[hobbit]

Support arm, I'm presuming you mean the track rod end piece on the end of the drop arm that links it to the bar that runs down to the nearside wheel area

If you have a drop arm on the replacement box, all well and good, if not once the old box is off, you could take it somewhere for the arm to be released, with heat and/or a puller etc, then replace the arm onto the new box

[Matt_H]

The bit I mean is about 10 inches long and pretty striaght, it has a bolt hole which bolts just above the chasis rail through a welded on support.  It bolts through the middle through the steering box, and at the bottom there is a bigger hole and it slots over a thingy coming out of the steering box and then finally has a place that a bush sits in and mounts to the rod that keeps the axle in the right place (left to right)

gosh I'm dead technical with my terminology aren't I?  ;-)

Anyway I had to take that off and the middle bolt was totally ceized in to the solid bit, I took the rest of it off so that I could get the heat on it.. all the others came off with a little persuasion

The reason I took it off was because I used a 90/110 steering guard which mounts over that middle bolt (£50 was a lot cheaper than £100 for the equiv discovery one).  You also have toweld a couple of brackets on that the 90/110 already has, but that only took a few minutes compared to getting that one bolt out!

It's funny they made power steering fluid red, it looks like my truck is bleeding!  

Matthew

[hobbit]

I understand the piece you mean now. You can leave that piece attached to the steering box, and just undo the nut from the side, taking the bracket off complete with the box. I wonder if you have applied heat around the box is the reason why its leaking like a sod, the heat may well have damaged the seals inside the steering box

[Matt_H]

I doubt it was the heat, as the arm was about 1/8 mile away from the car at the time!  :-)

The box was leaking a bit anyway but now it's leaking a lot - I kind of expected it to go sometime though - oh well!

Any ideas where the best (read cheapest) place to get one is?

Matthew

[hobbit]

Been a couple on ebay recently, I'm presuming you have a 4 bolt one. Try the wants section see what pops up

[Range Rover Blues]

I found Paddocks to be cheapest.  I bought one without a drop-arm because they're easy enough to overhaul.  The more you can strip down the better, our is a 3.9 with oil cooler and the pipes are right in the way, it's a b*****d of a job and I lost a couple of nails doing it.  I'd recommend it's a 2 man job.  Remember to have the wheels straight-ahead when you first start up and try to bleed the system!