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check steering box oil
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reluctantartist
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Joined: August 13, 2006
Posts: 1927
Location: Bloomington, IN
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:49 am    Post subject: check steering box oil Reply with quote

Is there a way to check the steering box oil level?
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1982 Westy, 1974 412 Variant... Yes, Aircooled's are great! Oh and I do have modern computer controlled vehicles too, but I just don't care about them.
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raygreenwood
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Joined: November 24, 2008
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Location: Oklahoma City
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, but not with the unit installed in the car. This is something I highly recommend (checking and replacing the steering box oil). If you are asking then you have probably noticed "greasiness" denoting leakage...which they all will with time.

A couple of things to know:

1. This is a recirculating ball type unit. It has no relation whatsoever to any steering box installed in any other air cooled. So...if you damage it and do not have a spare.....you are screwed.

2. There are only two ways to damage one of these boxes.
A. in an accident
B. by letting it run dry. In this case the friction in these units is very very low.....which is the feature of a recirculating ball unit. They will NEVER wear out on their own. Even if 90% of the oil leaks out....there should be enough....but.....the main issue will be corrosion. That is what will kill an empty steering gear box.

3. These and all other steering boxes already have a corrosion issue because of the type of gear lubricant (high sulfur, extreme pressure 90 weight oil)...hard on seals and breaks down to an acidic level.

4. to combat the acidity......the main pinion nut inside of these units......is copper plated to act as a sacrificial chemical anode of sorts....just awesome technology.

Many American and other cars from the 50's on used these type of boxes.....inside....they are a work of absolute mechanical art.

This past winter...I fully stripped, disassembled and rebuilt two type 4 steering boxes complete with awesome paint, high temp silicone case sealing, 100% synthetic superlube gear oil mixed with 40% superlube synthetic grease....so its now a low friction gel that will stay semi-fluid down to -60F and will not leak out.....and with new seals which I finally sourced modern part #'s for.

I have about 80k miles on a previous build using just superlube and 5% normal 90 weight...awesome stuff so I know it works.

I took about 1000 photos of these two builds. It kind of freaked me out opening these two boxes up ...and finding a very odd....bright green-ish main pinion nut. It looked alot like zinc chromate paint. But as i started cleaning in the parts washer...imagine my surprise when I found that it cleaned off.
through further research on recirculating ball steering boxes....I fund it was common to copper plate one major part...or to put a copper bolt in somewhere. This keeps the acids produced by gear hypoid oil breakdown from attacking the machined parts and seals.

It was clear from the green corrosion that the age of the oil was beyond. there was also plenty of water vapor evidence in the oil with light rust specs appearing here and there.

The corrosive nature of the oil alone....not even getting to the leaky seals and rust......are reason enough that ALL of us...should replace our steering gearbox oil.

Removing and feeding in the 58 ball bearings into the recirc, loop was daunting.....but actually not that hard...and was actually quite an interesting and enjoyable puzzle.
I stripped and reassembled and adjusted each gearbox three times just to get the hang of it. The two axial ball bearings in each box....were just absolute works of art.....FAG products and just pristine.

I highly recommend undertaking a strip and clean. You will find it slightly frustrating just like a puzzle....until you catch on to what you are doing...and then its really cool!
I was waiting to slap the tutorial together into a flip book to post for posterity....but I can put the pics together into a word document for now.

The two seal part #'s can be bought at auto zone. they are about $7 each.
The oil...you will need a quart of the synthetic gear oil and a tub of Superlube. They both have many uses so don't be alarmed that you will have half of each left over.

I used an ISO 680 equivalent fully synthetic gear oil (SAE 140+) mixed with grease of the same base. It may sweat a fine film of oil base from the filler plugs and seals simply because its synthetic/Teflon based and very slick....but you will never lose any significant amount of oil/grease. its just too thick compared to what was in it.....which was actually NOT an SAE 90 gear oil as many books report...but was actually a thickened high sulfur semi-grease very similar to a Browning power take-off gear box oil like those used on tractors.

The oil is $25 a quart. The grease is about $10 a tub. So with paint and seals the whole process would be about $55.
Find a new gearbox for that.

Oh....and you will need the large pitman arm puller from NAPA (about $26)...if you dont already have it....and the use of a very clean work bench, standard tools, a cheap magnetic parts cleaning dish from harbor freight (two would be better), a magnetic pick-up and decent snap ring pliers......and a way to clean parts very well (chem dip bucket, parts washer or tubs/bowls with wire brushes etc.).


I do happen to have a fully rebuilt resealed box spare since I did two....we could make a deal for a swap for yours.....or.....I could show you how to rebuild yours (which I highly recommend).

Rebuilding the steering box was one of the most interesting and satisfying parts I have ever rebuilt on a type 4. Ray
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hulken
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Joined: January 29, 2009
Posts: 92
Location: Norway
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 1:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We would love a how-to Ray, maybe a pdf version?
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raygreenwood
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Joined: November 24, 2008
Posts: 21474
Location: Oklahoma City
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 5:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes it will be a pdf tool so it can be downloaded. Of course the overall flip book idea will be a large project since its covering the rebuild of the whole car.....but im working to set it I p z o all chapters are separate. Ray
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