is my power steering gear dead???

Chuckman

Chuckman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2005
Location
Huntersville
so this weekend we jumped the old 83 in my M-in-Laws cow pasture, by accident because of a groundhog hole or dead cow carcass, dunno. (possibly during a drunken midnight adventure- Im not sure for legal reasons) lets just say my boss and I were camping on the New and he wanted to try out a v8. anyway,she took a hard hit when it came back to earth. shortly after that I got the old 'power steering' squeal. sure enough, out of fluid. add some. 10 minutes later, same thing. buzzkill. turns out the C clip and seals are blown out. Like, still there, but the ring clip and the seals are only still there because of the pitman arm keeping them from falling down. this is the J20 box upgrade on a CJ. Im super sunburnt from a river trip and haven't climbed under it- and a little hungover. it only dumps at full left lock but when it does, wow it pours out. It looks like its not broken but I can't imagine that its not, because the ring is blown out, yet still there. anybody seen one fail like this? not sure if I want to rebuild or replace. Im worried that theres something wrong that I could only see under extreme pressure. anybody got experience with them breaking/failing/leaking at the pitman arm boss. I can't imagine a standard chevy pump would build enough pressure do this, but we did hit 5,000 rpm several times- I think he was enjoying himself as his JK has got limp dick for power. would this be enough to blow the clip and seals out? Im betting the force of the hit cracked the arm boss and it opened up. but then it didn't seem 'wiggly' nor can I feel a crack with my fingernails.

btw- one for the book of redneck knowledge/ trail repairs. this happened in boone and I needed to get to charlotte. since it only 'dumped' at full left lock, and leaked 'reasonably little' when straight, I duct taped a trash bag under it all, and recycled the contents back into the reservoir at 30 minute intervals. drove the whole way home. word. old CJ's for the win.
 
LMAO at the field repair.

I have had steering boxes fail at the pitman. Never from jumping, and never from jumping during late night cookie sessions... but it has happened. The bushing or whatever holds the sector shaft would fail, then the sector shaft seal starts pissing fluid everywhere.
 
When you hit full lock in one direction or the other different areas of the box are under pressure. On a left turn the rear of the power piston is under pressure and it shares open space with the sector shaft (for a rear swing Saginaw box). Thus, if the sector shaft seals fail it will leak on application of power turning left. Pull it apart, make sure nothing is broken, change sector shaft seals, cross fingers and put it back together.
 
^ how did it spit the retaining C clip out, and the clip not split in two???
 
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