Posted by Dozerman51 [108.235.117.172] on Saturday, November 21, 2015 at 20:09:37 :
Hello All,
Last week I decided to clean up my original steering gear that came with the truck when I bought it 28 years ago. I have had an NOS one in the truck for the last 20 years or so. Anyway it leaks oil like hell also, but that is a story for another day. I took the original apart, cleaned it and had to make my own Housing bracket gasket since it is "Unobtainium" now. I did the following:
1)purchased a sheet of 1/8" thick cork-rubber.
2)Made the ouside diameter of the gasket using the CC#916083 wheel bearing nut wrench as a tracer(2&3/4" Diam.) and an old 2&1/4" Oil Pressure Gauge Bezel for the inside Diam. of the gasket.
3)Removed, cleaned, tap and died the 3 housing bracket studs and the 1 housing bracket adjusting stud, and the steering gear housing assembly.
3)Re-installed the studs on the steering gear housing using thread sealant.
4)Installing the steering gear housing bracket to the housing assembly I used a liberal amount of Permatex#2 on the bracket and evenly tighted the bolts. The housing bracket gasket that I made compressed in its seat and the Permatex #2 evenly spread out along the edge of the bracket housing.
5)I plan on filling the steering gear with Lubriplate Mag-00 grease. It's a semi-fluid grease which is used on old Cat Tractors to lubricate the rollers, etc. Lubriplate says it can be used on leaking gear cases and Antique auto folks say they use it in the steering boxes and they get little to no leaks.
6)Will use the metric seal that is listed in the PIF. I test fit it and it seals around the sector shaft beautifully.
Well, that's it. Hope my efforts at least reduce the oil leaks in the steering gear to a bare minimum. What do you guys think? Did I just waste my time with this attempted fix? All opinions welcome.
Joe Giraud
San Carlos, Ca
41' WC-12
40" Cat D2/3J
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