help with oil leaks on recoditioned engine and steering box

[Megamatt]

Hi all,

Big day for me yesterday with first drive in my restored FB after a rebuild taking 4 years. Last time it was registered was 28 years ago. All went well except after a 200km drive including some big hills (Maleny in Sunshine Coast hinterland, Qld) when I stopped I noticed a few whisps of smoke/oil vapour from the oil filler, and of more concern a bit of oil dripping from the engine breather pipe. Not heaps but oil or vapour had stained the steering arm a little when driving. Should I be worried?

Also, there was a fairly good coating of oil/steering box grease which had leaked from where the pitman arm joins the shaft, which then dribbled down to coat the area where it joins the steering arm. When I first bought the car the steering was a bit stiff so I added SAE 90 oil to the the steering box as per shop manual. It freed it up but for the last year or so it has been constantly dribbling out. I figured by the time I was ready to register it most of the oil had dribbled out so I replaced it with Penrite steering box grease. I assume what I see coating the steering arm is a mixture of the brown colored steering box grease and SAE 90 oil.

Can anyone tell me if there is a seal in the bottom where the pitman arm joins that can easily be replaced (and how), or should I accept it as is and keep an eye on the grease level in the steering box?

Photo shows oil stain on steering arm from engine breather pipe (black circle) and oil/grease stain from steering box (yellow circle), and the amount of grease/oil drips. This area was pretty much completely covered. Other photo of course shows the finished product. Another FB brought back from the grave! Hopefully many years of enjoyment ahead.

Thanks for any advise or replies,
Matt.

[Blacky]

She looks a treat Matt I replaced the seal in the bottom of my stering box - just removed the pitman arm , dug it out with a seal pick , went to the local bearing supplier and bought a new one and fitted it no problem. No need to remove the steering box from the car .

[Megamatt]

Hi Blacky,

Would the seal you replaced be the one numbered 20 in the exploded view diagram from my shop manual? If so, did you need the shown tool to remove the pitman arm to get to it, and would you then need to do a wheel alignment again?

On the fuel caps, can you make a non-vented one vented by drilling a couple of holes? I rather like the look of this cap is all.

Thanks

[rosco]

Hi Matt,
I have the original steering box in my old bus - like you, about 30 years back, I put some SAE 90 in at one stage - and it leaked almost straight away.

I chased up that Penrite grease and took the steering box cover off.. scraped, dug, scooped out all the muck and oil I could and then filled it up with grease and finished off the fill to the suggested level with the cover back on.

Same deal - grease started coming out from the pitman arm. I didn't know there was a seal around the shaft then - but when I found out about it - GMH service department told me that I'd have to replace it. I used a common garden variety puller to remove the arm - dug out the old seal (shot) like Blacky posted and pushed in the new one..

As I recall - the shaft and arm are splined - I can't remember if it was the original arm or the current one (HD/HR) which was "quadrant keyed" - will only go back on in one of the 90 degree quadrants..

If you have concerns - mark the end of the shaft and the body... with the steering wheel set at exactly 12 O'clock...

Don't stress - if it is possible to be a tooth out - you can simply move the steering wheel around to match.. but I doubt that this will happen - there'll be a noticeable difference in steering wheel/road wheel alignment if you are one tooth or more out .. and again, if it is possible to just be out by that much...

Take a good look at the shaft when you pull out the seal - check that it has not got any burrs or marks in it where the seal face runs....
I fully expect that it's just the seal which has cracked, split or "aged"...

As for the oil breather - yep.. my recollection of when I had the grey motors .. they both blew out condensate.. with whisp of oil added in.
If you are concerned - you can remove the breather pipe and give it a good clean out.
The breather uses the draught of of airflow under the car to draw out these fumes.. along with the open faced intake which gets some positive pressure from the radiator fan...

That long trip you did up into the hinterland probably got the oil hot enough to evaporate any condensate in it... you didn't mention when you last did an oil change - so, I'm just expecting that the oil was not fresh....

Greys are quite happy to have wafts coming out of both these areas - the top one particularly when stopping the motor.. it's just fumes.. and nothing to be concerned with... but, if it was "belching" out blue smoke - well, we might have need to go looking for cause....

frats,
Rosco

[Blacky]

Hi Blacky,

Would the seal you replaced be the one numbered 20 in the exploded view diagram from my shop manual? If so, did you need the shown tool to remove the pitman arm to get to it, and would you then need to do a wheel alignment again?

On the fuel caps, can you make a non-vented one vented by drilling a couple of holes? I rather like the look of this cap is all.

Thanks

Yes , that is the seal I replaced - your pitman arm should come off fairly easily if you have just finished a rebuild ? I cant remember how I took mine off , probably with a standard two leg puller I would assume as thats all I have at home and cant recall it being a problem. There would be no need for a wheel alignment as you arent going to adjust any toe in/out doing what you are doing.

Dont know how you would go drilling holes in your cap , can give it a try I guess and see what happens ?

[WayneXG95]

you also might try checking the 0 ring in the dissy, it's was the cause of most of my oil leaks.

Any oil around the dissy and down the shaft?

[Megamatt]

Thanks guys for the replies.

I have decided not to drill my locking cap and just bought an aftermarket lockable one instead that looks similar. No worries then about if it sucks the tank in or run the pump dry when fuel level drops (and it did drop quick I noticed - maybe jamming two standard re-kitted strombergs on without re-jetting might need to be reviewed - happy to take suggestions here).

re-breather pipe - the drive I did on Sunday was the first real distance driven since I drove it to get registered on Friday last week. Before that only running in garage. Engine rebuilt and re-fitted 2 months ago so fresh oil (still clear brown color on dipstick). Quite possible engine pipe had not been cleaned inside before going back on after rebuild (I don't recall doing so), so maybe what dribbled out was hot black oil residue from 28 years ago? The easiest way to tell I guess is to take it off an clean it out properly then see what happens when it is back on again?

The steering box and diff were the only two mechanical items not reconditioned during the rebuild. Much to my relief the diff did not howl on the highway, although hard to tell because of the sports muffler being so loud. I may need to put an additional muffler in just to quieten it down a bit for highway travel - any thoughts on that?

Amazingly it still runs the original radiator, although I think now it is going I'd like to get that re-cored for piece of mind. Oh, and the heater rediator element is original too (not sure I will use it much in Qld, air blower might be of benefit in summer traffic though)

re-pitman arm, seal - I now have a borrowed puller and will try taking that off to replace the seal. Sure hope I can find a replacement. On the highway I noticed it drifting a little bit from side to side, from a bit of play in the steering wheel. I could probably live with it as it is so minor. I have not done any adjustment here, wanting to see how good or bad it was before making it better (or worse). I might try and tighten up the adjustment screw a little to take out the small amount of slop. Hopefully the bushes down the pitman arm end are ok and I can just fix the leak with replacing the seal. Any tips for picking it out while the shaft is still in place, and pressing it back in?

Distributor shaft looks clean. That has been in and out a few times during rebuild (now electronic instead of points).

Thanks again in advance for advice.

Matt.

[Blacky]

I just dug mine out with an oil seal pick - cant remember how I put it back in but a pin punch would probably do the job , or use a piece of pipe ?

[rosco]

From memory, I think I dug mine out using a sacrificed bent small screwdriver.
Like Blacky, I used a pipe to push the replacement it - think it was a piece of copper pipe..... way, way long time back... no entry in my logbook that I could find either... way before I got serious about detailed entries.

frats,
Rosco