For the past couple of months, I've had a bit of a PS leak. Wasn't exactly sure where it was coming from, but forming drops dripping off the very front edge of the gear box. It was just enough to get the box wet at first and wouldn't even drip onto the driveway. It began to pick up about a month ago and has steadily gotten worse. It got to the point where it would blow back onto the steering linkage, the diff cover and all the way back to the tranny pan and when parked would drip off of everything making a huge mess. The weather has been pretty cold here lately reducing my desire to jack with it, but we've been blessed with some 50° to 60° days this week so I prepared myself to tackle the leak.

I was fully expecting to find the sector shaft seal leaking which would require me to pull the box off to replace it. I headed up to the car wash, put on my rain gear, and laid down on the ground and thoroughly washed down the whole underside of the box, pump, engine, tranny, axle, etc. and then went for a short drive. After crawling back under it, the sector shaft seal was totally dry, all hoses & fittings were dry, but the front plug on the gear box was bathed in PS fluid. The only place it appeared it could possibly be leaking from was the top cover on the gear box. I dropped a socket down on a long extension and got on the top cover bolts and found that 3 out of the 4 bolts were loose. I know there is just an o-ring for a gasket under the top cover so I just cranked down on all 4 of the bolts. Hopefully, that's all it was..... I'll find out after my drive to work tomorrow. I used Brake Cleaner to clean off all the PS fluid the box is dry again..... I'll see if it stays that way.

 

mines leaking to ,i wonder if I have the same pump as you

 

Mine was not the pump that was leaking.... it was the top cover on the steering gear box.

 

Oh Ok ,Ill check that on mine too

 

I noticed this morning on the way to work that the steering felt noticably tighter (much less "sloppy"). After thinking about it, it makes sense too. Since the adjustment for setting the preload on the sector shaft is on the top cover, it stands to reason that the preload was "backed off" a bit with the cover being loose. Tightening the cover back down returned the sector shaft preload to what it should be.