Power Steering Leaking

petertay

Member
This power steering from the 1950s works fine in all respects, but it had to have fluid added to the reservoir every few hours. It was leaking fluid out of the breather cap (between the two cap screws in the photo). The gear box below was full of PS fluid when I pulled the steering column. We replaced the two oil seals in the steering shaft, the one above the Valve Housing and one below. (Being a 'shade-tree' mechanic, I had a professional shop familiar with Fords press the seals in.)

BUT now it leaks so badly that reservoir emptied out in just a few minutes! The white arrow in the photo shows where it was leaking out where the pump is bolted to the steering gear housing. Why would it leak there? There is no pressure there is there? We didn't have a new paper gasket, but the old one looked okay, and we put gasket sealer on both sides of it. And yes the four bolts were nice and tight.

Should I assume the new seals got damaged, or do I have other problems? Thanks for your comments.


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Good question. Thanks for the suggestion. Of course we assume the seal was installed correctly, but maybe that's it.
 
It's definately caused by a lower seal failure. That system runs about 700 psi so it does need to be right.
Check the seal surface on the shaft too to insure it is not worn or boogered up somehow.
 

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