Steering gear leaking at bottom

[Glenn Perry]

Steering Gear bottom domed cover seems to have cracked and leaks fluid. Truck is 175kms steering gear showed very little wear any reason why this might have happened.

Can I get another cover and just replace it or are they matched?

Thanks

[Silverdodge]

Off road tires?

[Glenn Perry]

Tires are BFG K02

[Silverdodge]

Oversize or stock is what I ment

[Mopar1973Man]

Oversized tires tend to put higher stress loads on the steering box. I would call Ryan at BlueTop and ask him for a new end cap and a seal kit and just rebuild the box again. Kits are fairly cheap and easy to rebuild and make tight again. Even Ryan will warn that oversized tires do more damage to steering boxes than stock size do. To this day I'm at 329k miles I'm now got a very slow leak on my input shaft seal. Beyond that, the steering is still tight and steering box is doing fine. I'm also running stock 16x7 steel chrome wheels and 235/85 R16 tires. 

[Glenn Perry]

Thanks Morpar1973man, I contacted Ryan at Blue Top he identified the end cap, seal and lock ring which are now heading North. Great contact.

[Dieselfuture]

7 hours ago, Glenn Perry said:

Thanks Morpar1973man, I contacted Ryan at Blue Top he identified the end cap, seal and lock ring which are now heading North. Great contact.

 if you could update this when you pop the cap open, just curious why it cracked. I have a feeling something got loose inside and as you turn steering it got jammed between the cap and cracked it.

[Glenn Perry]

So I remove the end cap this morning, nothing loose or foreign bodies inside. If you look st the end cap on the out side photo on the crack it looks like some things hit it.  So washed out ready for new cap to come.

Mopar1973man I’ve included a VP photo with it still having warranty tag on it can I assume it’s the original VP. I got full history carfax which showed general maintenance.

[Mopar1973Man]

VP44 is not original the VOID tag is torn. That has been removed before.

 

Your end cap does look like a object was pinned between the worm gear plug and the cap.

[Glenn Perry]

New end cap, lock ring and O-ring installed, flushed the system works perfectly. 

[Marcus2000monster]

Did it make your steering easier to turn? Mine is very stiff and hard to turn. I’m thinking I need to rebuild the box 

[Mopar1973Man]

2 minutes ago, Marcus2000monster said:

Did it make your steering easier to turn? Mine is very stiff and hard to turn.

 

Typically a good power steering flush will do wonders. 332k and still using my OEM steering box. I've got a minor input shaft leak. The flush needs to be done where you're pushing fresh fluid through the system from the reservoir to the steering box return line (not the hydrobooster). 

[Marcus2000monster]

49 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Typically a good power steering flush will do wonders. 332k and still using my OEM steering box. I've got a minor input shaft leak. The flush needs to be done where you're pushing fresh fluid through the system from the reservoir to the steering box return line (not the hydrobooster). 

If I’m wrong correct me but you have to siphon the fluid out right?

[IBMobile]

You can siphon, fill, run, siphon, fill, run until the fluid is clean.

 

You take the steering box return hose of at the pump and place in a drain pan, cap the fitting on the pump, run the engine and fill until clean.  Run the engine only for a few seconds at a time.  There isn't much fluid in the pump and it's pumped out fast

 

Or you can do this

 

[Marcus2000monster]

3 minutes ago, IBMobile said:

You can siphon, fill, run, siphon, fill, run until the fluid is clean.

 

You take the steering box return hose of at the pump and place in a drain pan, cap the fitting on the pump, run the engine and fill until clean.  Run the engine only for a few seconds at a time.  There isn't much fluid in the pump and it's pumped out fast

 

Or you can do this

 

Thank you.