The steering box has a leak at the input shaft. I bought a kit with new seals.

Is it necessary to remove the steering box from the car to change the seal? And what is involved in taking the old seal out and installing a new one?

Thanks!!

Yes, there is a procedure for replacing the pitman shaft seals without removing the gear from the car. The following scan outlines the procedure:
http://www.corvettefaq.com/acar/RBGDisassembly&RepairPics1.doc

Carefully inspect the pitman shaft after you blow the original seals out of the gear housing. Make sure that there are not scratches or corrosion products that might damage the new seals that you are installing. You may need to polish the shaft with crokus cloth.

Jim

Thanks. But is the pitman shaft and input shaft the same thing? I thought the input shaft was the one coming off the steering column???

You wont need to remove it. You need a spanner wrench. once you get the threaded part out it is easy to see what is needed to do the job.

Sorry, I misread your post. My answer was for the pitman shaft seals.

Can someone who has experience with this offer some advice?

I took the power steering gear box apart and replaced the input shaft seals.

What I'm wondering about now is how to fit the worm assembly and the valve assembly back together. The worm assembly has a round pin projecting out on its outer top edge, which is to fit into a groove in the lower edge of the valve assembly. It is easy to fit the two together outside of the gear box. But on reassembly, the worm assembly goes into the gear box first. Then the valve assembly slides in. How can one make sure that the pin is in the groove? It seems impossibly to tell by feel and it is impossible to see anything in there. I tried repeatedly to line it up while sliding things in, but am not at all sure that the pin and groove didn't move out of position.

And how do I know how tight to tighten the adjuster plug and lock nut?
Thanks for your help!!

ok i'll give this a shot. if you got the worm and balls back in place [not sure how far you disassembled] the pin should line up with a notch on the valve [at least the newer ones do]
try and line up the pin and notch and press the valve into the gear make sure to lube the seals.
now screw the threaded nut down until it bottoms
out. put a mark on the case and on the nut. the
back the nut off 1/2" measured on the case. then put the lock ring on and tighten it down. now if the pin and notch matched up the lock ring should be flush with the nut. if its not flush you'll have to disassemble and try again. i know there are preload measurement that i'm sure someone will jump in here enlighten me to my error but this should get you in the ball park.
good luck it can be a pain.

It turned into a minor disaster. I ended up removing the steering gear box from the car and finally got everything back together so the adjusting nut seated properly. But now the input shaft turns but the pitman shaft does not turn properly. It stops and starts and doesn't move freely.

So I guess it's time to buy a rebuilt unit, one rebuilt by the pros.

One more question. There are two boxes available: one is 2 1/2 to 3 turns from lock to lock and the other is 3 1/4 to 4 1/4 turns from lock to lock. Since the shafts no longer turn properly, I can't tell which one I have.

Which one would have been standard on a 396 Chevelle with power steering in 1967? Or were they both available with these cars? Is there any reason to change, or is it best to go with what was on there.
Thanks again!

I am having mine built. I am going to use the jeep style box with the quick ratio and I am also going to reuse the input shaft from the Chevelle box so I can reuse the rag joint.