Steering Box Leak

[lumberjack]

The steering box on my IH 4700 is leaking between the box and the section the hoses attach to. It looks like 4 bolts hold the sections together, I’m assuming there’s gasket or o ring that has failed between the sections... any surprises I should expect/anticipate?


Also, I need to check/adjust the pressure of the steering system. With the tag down and a heavy load, the steering gets quite tough. Max load so far of 10.5klb on the 12klb steer axle. What’s the red circle in the 3rd picture? I read in another thread that the pressure relief is on the pump, not the box. For reading the pressure, install a t and gauge?


Thanks in advance for the insight!

 

[DMiller]

Once could read it verified Sheppard gear. Mostly quad rings where is leaking and not much reason to leak in that area other than being surged. I have not been in the later styles as this one, but as that is the control valve housing is not something a novice has not dealt with. Nylon quad rings and seals, have to be warmed to expand to install then ring compressor squeezed back to normal while still warm. Also the piston/rack has what is called recirculating ball system on the operating shaft, those get loose is a real mess.

One small question, is the steering wheel shaft to the gear easy to slip in and out? Has to be for this set up to work properly. Some of the old plasti-coat slip splines would peel up and jam up the works.

 

[crane operator]

Sheppard has a great website with manuals on it. The manuals for mine on my mack even had pictures, which really help me. (no comments needed about my intelligence- I have my wife for that)

http://www.rhsheppard.com/customer-service/service-bulletins/

 

[lumberjack]

I did find Sheppard has great online resources.

Someone had been in the box before me and replaced the square ring with an o ring and the tetra seal with an o ring in a backer, plus the o ring was twisted and nicked. I tried replacing with what they used but it still leaked. The seal kit overnight from the dealer was $51, installation was very easy. I didn’t know until after I got the kit that someone went dumb trying to fix it with the wrong seal cross sections.

I took a couple pictures while doing the work... here’s where I was replacing the seals with o rings. They were slightly cumbersome while the correct seals from the kit were a breeze, taking less than 15 minutes to swap.

 

[DMiller]

Sometimes do get lucky, some just do not know to buy OE style seals as 'will fits' do not usually last.