[Roadsters] leaking steering box question

[Gary and Cindy Ault]

I assume your car is pre-1969, and therefore has a worm and roller (Type A) 
steering box, although I think a similar repair on a Type B box will be 
pretty much the same.

There is an oil seal on the bottom of the box where the shaft exists and the 
Pittman arm is attached.  Good chance that is the source of your leak. 
Unfortunately, it is not easy to correct, as you'll need to 1) disconnect 
the cross rod joint and tie rod end from the Pittman arm, and 2) remove the 
Pittman arm from the steering shaft.  Remove the top of the steering box. 
Disconnect the steering U-joint and pull the steering column backward into 
the car about six inches.  Remove the rear (traingular shaped) cover, and 
withdraw the worm gear.  Then you can withdraw the steering shaft from the 
steering box through the top of the box..  Pry out the seal and install a 
new one, then put things back together.  That's what I recall without 
looking at the exploded diagram.  You may be able to do all this with the 
box in the car, but it's easier with the box removed.  That said, removing 
the box with the radiator and all the other stuff up front in place was a 
real bear.

I once bought a used Type A box on eBay which was said to be tight and have 
no apparent wear in the worm gear.  The seller was correct on those points, 
but the box was not filled with gear oil as Nissan intended, but rather was 
packed with lithium moly grease.  That might have worked OK, but I cleaned 
it out, and, presuming that the grease was put in because the lower seal was 
leaking and the owner didn't want to pull the box apart, I pulled the box 
apart, cleaned out the grease, replaced the lower seal and installed it in 
my '67-1/2 2000.  Works fine.  You could try the grease trick -- I'm just 
one for keeping things the way the factory intended.  As long as you get 
enough grease into the box to assure good pubrication between the worm gear 
and roller, it may work.

If you want further discussion, contact me off List.

Gary

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed and Sandie" <edsandie at telus.net>
To: <datsun-roadsters at autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2013 4:45 PM
Subject: [Roadsters] leaking steering box question


> Hi there, well we finally have our cute little roadster on the road, 
> learning
> a lot about this little car took it for our first fun drive yesterday so 
> my
> husband could teach me the shifting etc, what fun!  But today I noticed
> something leaking under and behind the front drivers side wheel, my 
> husband
> jacked the car up and it looks as though it is coming from the steering 
> box.
> Now we did fill this up is it possible we over filled it or is there 
> another
> problem we are soon to learn about!....
>
> Sandie
>
> [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/png which had a name of 
> wlEmoticon-smile[1].png]
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