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3400 Ford power steering leaks out of steering column

T

tweety16

New User
My 3400 Ford leaks power steering fluid out of the top of the steering column. I have replaced the seal down by the steering box several times. I have also installed a speedi sleeve to cover up the grooves in the shaft. Whenever I have removed the seal to replace it, it looks perfect. After studying the hydraulic diagram it appears that this seal only should seal very low pressure, it is connected to the fluid reservoir. My fluid reservoir seems to have pressure in it when the tractor is running. My question is should the fluid reservoir be vented? I looked up the specs on the seal and it is a low pressure, approximately 10 PSI seal. I only seem to get the leak when I run the tractor down the road and turn the engine at high RPM.
Any ideas? I hate to keep changing the seal and have it leak again.
 
Have you replaced your PS filter in the reservoir? I had fluid spurting out the breather hole in the fill cap so I pulled the filter out, no more leaks - now I've just got to pick up a new filter.....
 
Yes I replaced the filter last year. My cap does not have a breather hole in it. As far as I can tell the reservoir has no vent at all. The cap seals quite tightly. In fact after I run the tractor and open the cap air pressure leaks out.
 
They did make two pumps for those tractors.
Yours should put out about 750 psi.
The ones for the 4000, 5000 and several of the industrial models look identical but put out about 1100 psi.
I think I would buy a cheap 3000 psi gauge and see what the pump is producing for pressure.
Northern Tool sells a gauge for about $20. You will probably need to rig up some fittings but that shouldn't be hard.
 
(quoted from post at 14:14:04 12/29/15) Do you know if the power steering reservoir is supposed to be vented?
Click to expand...

If it's the later style pump with the reservoir integrated into the body of the pump, then yes, the cap should be vented.

If it's the earlier style with the separate reservoir up above the pump then I don't believe it is vented.
 
Here's a link to the parts diagram for that pump. Note the description for the part labeled #25 says "Cap, Filler, Vented".
 
Thank you for your assistance and advice! I know that my cap is not vented, perhaps it is plugged up. I will look at it this weekend. When I ope the reservoir after running the tractor I hear air escape.
 
You say:

My 3400 Ford leaks power steering fluid out of the top of the steering column. I have replaced the seal down by the steering box several times.
Click to expand...

That seal is for the steering gearbox, and that gearbox should have a heavy lube in it like 80w90 gear oil or NIGL #00 grease. it should not have power steering fluid in it. So replacing that seal will not do anything to keep the power steering fluid from leaking out the top of the steering column.

The power steering fluid that is coming out of the top of the steering column is coming from the steering control valve that is above the seal that you've been replacing. There are seals above and below the steering control valve, and the upper seal is likely where it is leaking if it is coming out the top of the steering column.
 
That is the seal I have replaced, the upper one on the control valve. I looked at the diagram of the control valve and the only pressure that seal should see is whatever pressure is in the reservoir. I am hoping that is my problem. The last two times the fluid leaked out of the steering column were after relatively high speed, high RPM runs down the road for a few miles. I think the reservoir built up some pressure and it exited up the steering column.
Thanks for all of your help and instruction!
 
Since the only pressure that seal SHOULD see is the pressure in the reservoir, and it continues to leak after replacing the seal several times, I would look into something being wrong with the control valve itself such that it is letting higher pressure get to that seal than what SHOULD be getting to it. My next step would be to rebuild the control valve.
 
Great advice Sean, thanks for your help! I am going to run the tractor with the reservoir cap loose, if it still leaks fluid I will tackle the valve as you suggest.
 
(quoted from post at 15:01:50 12/30/15) Since the only pressure that seal SHOULD see is the pressure in the reservoir, and it continues to leak after replacing the seal several times, I would look into something being wrong with the control valve itself such that it is letting higher pressure get to that seal than what SHOULD be getting to it. My next step would be to rebuild the control valve.
Click to expand...
hanks for all of the advice everybody. Sorry it took me so long to get back and respond. I changed that leaky seal, again, and added a vent to the cap on my power steering reservoir. I just drilled a hole and put a fitting in it with a piece of tubing on it. So far it is OK. I took it on a long ride down the road, which is when it always failed before. So far so good!
Thanks again for being so generous with your knowledge!
 
Thanks for posting your results - too many threads get started and are left without resolution posted.
 
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