71 LS5 Steering Box

[Nick Liarakos]

ls steering box nick liarakos hi guys i just recently purchased a very original ls with speed after topping off the steering box with wt after noticing it was very low i discovered that the pittman arm shaft seal is leaking very badly i just finished replacing all the u joints and left rear bearings so i really don't feel like dissasembling the box to replace the seal as a temporoary fix i've decided to fill the box with multi purpose grease my questions are is there any way to take the cover off the box without removing the pittman shaft or do i just have to fill it through the fill hole i've heard conflicting procedures for checking lash what is the best way to do it without disconnecting the steering linkage thanks in advance for your help

[Joe L.]

Re: 71 LS5 Steering Box

re ls steering box joe lucia weight gear oil is not the correct lubricant for a corvette steering gear the correct lubricant is a special steering grease sold by general motors dealers under part number this is a thick grease about the consistency of lithium based chassis lube your leak might have been caused by the fact that the pitman shaft seal is not designed to retain gear oil in any event you can probably replace the seal gm part number by carefully prying it out and very carefully installing a new one so as not to cut or damage the seal on the sharp splines of the pitman shaft it is not necessary to remove the pitman shaft before removing the side cover in fact you can't do this the side cover must first be removed in order to remove the shaft after you've removed the ball nut main shaft assembly to remove the cover you simply remove the bolts securing it to the housing and remove the adjusting not from the lash adjuster stud to grease the unit though you don't need to remove the cover simply introduce grease with a grease gun into one of the cover bolt holes being careful not to overfill it and blow grease past the seals