TedH

All,

I've put this project off long enough; maybe too long. I've been cleaning up a 'grease slick' below my steering box for the last year since installing my headers. My suspicion is that the seal that fits around the pitman shaft on the underside of the gearbox had dried out and the headers provided the necessary heat to cause the grease to ooze.

Anyway, I've bought the inexpensive pitman arm gear puller from the local Advance Auto along with two tubes of High Temp Grease. I'm about to place my order for the two seals (GB-11 is the pitman seal and GB-08 is the side cover gasket) at $12.99 and $5.99 respectively from Van Steel.

Will advise on progress as/once I've pulled the pitman arm and seal starting Friday afternoon.


[Modified by TedH, 8:03 PM 9/3/2003]

Jim Shea

During your rebuild of the gear, don't overfill the gearbox with your high temp grease. Particularly since it is close to your header pipes, you will need air space inside the gear for the grease to expand. Since you will be starting with a completely empty gearbox, the gear assembly drawing says to use 11 oz of grease. The shop manual says to use a 13 oz container of lube.

Just don't overfill or you may blow your new pitman shaft seal and start lubricating your garage floor all over again.