Mopar Muscle Association UK

I have a couple of power steering box seal kits at home.
Which seal is gone on the box and I can bring it to the nats for you or post it to you.

Havent a clue Anton!

It was supposed to have been rebuilt with new seals. If the oil is sitting in the recess around the castellated bit, I presume if there's something missing or worn it's whatever is below that area.

I'll see if we can find out where it came from and quiz them about it

Thanks anyway - I'll let you know if we need one of your seals

Is it the castle nut where the steering coupler connects or where the steering adjuster is.
Below both of the is just an oring as I repaired Scott's and mine in the same way. If I can help let me know. I think I have some picture of Scott's when it was apart. I also have both the proper castle spanners to take it apart.

RobTwin wrote:It was our turn for an MOT on Saturday, booked in at 10am at Jim Darrington's garage (previous winner of one the Nats' compulsory 68 Charger awards with his Viper-blue specimen ), up in deepest Bedfordshire.

Stu had already said that he'd spotted a bit of oil under the trans, which appeared to be dripping down from the torque converter inspection plate area and also some trans (power steering) oil sitting on the large castellated part of the steering box, under the adjuster screw nut

Despite this (read - not being able to spot a quick fix) we started 'her' up, on the first turn of the key I might add and set off gingerly on the 40min trip up the A1. Gingerly cos it was the first time it had turned a wheel in 5 1/2 years

Within 1/4 mile tho Stu had pulled in, complaining of what felt like a slipping trans. Strange, as we'd put the recommended amount of fluid in weeks ago. Checking the level on the dipstick, it did look low, but it's always tricky to tell what the actual level is when the botton section of the dipstick is dry but there's oil up above the full mark. Put in what oil we had but in the meantime also spotted a fuel leak in one of the original, unchanged fuel lines under the car. A pin-hole was squirting a jet of petrol up the underside of the floorpan/frame.
Not ideal when youre on the way to an MOT so we checked with Jim and he said to bring it up and we'd fix it there

So set off again and managed to get to the garage without any more stops

Not all good news tho - for most of the journey, there was a cloud of smoke/oil coming from under the car. Presumably from either the leaky trans or leaky steeing box?

Pulling into the MOT bay, it looked like someone had been shot/stabbed with the trail of red fluid being left behind.

And once under the car in the pit we could see the pesky bottom hose was still leaking water. So apart from engine oil and brake fluid, that's almost the full set of fluids leaking

Thankfully the water was an easy fix, and the petrol leak was halted with a bit of hose and a few jubilee clips, but the trans & steering box are still a problem.

Apart from that tho, Jim was able to give us the MOT

Dont want to miss out on taking it to the Pod, but we're stumped what to do about the leaks. The steering box was rebuilt a couple of years ago (havent got their name to hand) but I've heard someone had a similar problem where the people that did the work forgot to refit an o-ring. Dunno if that could be the problem with ours too? And it's a bugger to get to now everythings fitted.

And as for the trans, if the oil is coming out below the converter, from the bottom of the bellhousing, is it a seal behind the converter? Didnt really want to be removing the trans at this stage

Any ideas anyone ?




Anyhoo, some pics from yesterday.......

Hmmmm, that all a bit unfortunate. My saturday was quite similar, though rather less problematic in terms of the number of fluids!

Most issues resolved now, but that pesky A/C temp valve on the bulkhead is still defying m best efforts to stop it leaking!

Anyway, ive got a number of second hand pumps if its any use. No idea on condition of each one or even which one you have, but if they are any help for bits etc, let me know.

ANTON wrote:Is it the castle nut where the steering coupler connects or where the steering adjuster is.
Below both of the is just an oring as I repaired Scott's and mine in the same way. If I can help let me know. I think I have some picture of Scott's when it was apart. I also have both the proper castle spanners to take it apart.

Thanks Anton - see pic below. I've tried to show where the powers steering (ie trans) fluid had been sitting (yellow circle)

Stu rang the people who did the rebuild earlier today (Mon) but needs to ring them back Tues to speak to the peron who would know what work was, or should have been done. They'll prob say they'll have another look at it for us if we can get it off for them (they collect and re-deliver, if memory serves) but I dont fancy taking it off again any time soon!

I'll let you know what they reckon as soon as I hear back from Stu.

Access to the steering box is a bit more limited now the battery tray and power steering hoses are fitted but if you had your 'special' spanner with you at the Pod is it something we could do there?

Roger wrote: Hmmmm, that all a bit unfortunate. My saturday was quite similar, though rather less problematic in terms of the number of fluids!

Most issues resolved now, but that pesky A/C temp valve on the bulkhead is still defying m best efforts to stop it leaking!

Anyway, ive got a number of second hand pumps if its any use. No idea on condition of each one or even which one you have, but if they are any help for bits etc, let me know.

Thanks Roger, good to hear you're getting there too! I presume you're aiming to bring the car to the Nats?

As mentioned above, it looks like it's the steeing box, not the pump that's giving us trouble. Thanks for the offer tho

RobTwin wrote:

Roger wrote: Hmmmm, that all a bit unfortunate. My saturday was quite similar, though rather less problematic in terms of the number of fluids!

Most issues resolved now, but that pesky A/C temp valve on the bulkhead is still defying m best efforts to stop it leaking!

Anyway, ive got a number of second hand pumps if its any use. No idea on condition of each one or even which one you have, but if they are any help for bits etc, let me know.

Thanks Roger, good to hear you're getting there too! I presume you're aiming to bring the car to the Nats?

As mentioned above, it looks like it's the steeing box, not the pump that's giving us trouble. Thanks for the offer tho

Got a load of steering box parts too!

Is that a non original pipeclamp i see....................

Theres an o-ring below the nut.
take the nut off and put a new o-ring on.

Ok thanks Anton, we might be able to cope with that one!

I had the same "PROBLEMEMO" and it was the leaking pump spraying out little bits of fluid when on Full lock. took some time to "SUSS" it

Stu says it's not coming from the adjuster so may be back to the big castellated nut area

He's spoken to the people that did the rebuild and the bloke that did the work is going to come out to see what the problem is & hopefully fix it!

Trouble is, between us, they can only come Thurs am.... talk about cutting it fine

Crikey - a year since I updated this thread!


Nothing major to add, tbh, but the aforementioned steering box leak was fixed thanks to some o-rings from Anton and the use of his home-made spanner
It's amazing how well an o-ring can work if it's the correct diameter and sits in the correct position..... No thanks to the people that rebuilt the box

And the trans leak sorted itself out after using that Wynns Stop Leak.

Between then and now, we've swapped a few orange box & FBO ignitions out, to get a reliable combination, and at the moment, an orange box seems to be the best solution
Did try the old GM HEI set-up, as recommended by Dave R & Dave 999 but we couldnt get it to work for some reason? Anyhoo, we're happy with the orange box for now, except it's not very well hidden, mounted on the panel in front of the rad, behind the grille.

As was pointed out by quite a few 'critics' that I overheard when the car was on CA's stand at the NEC last November, the trim panel on the trunk was well overdue for a bit of attention (because it's Mazak, and tricky to refurbish without disintegrating), or replacing.

So when I saw on FBBO a chap from Venzuela had a bunch (approx 12 ) of these as NOS for sale, we took the plunge and grabbed one off him. Sure, it's still got a few minor pits, but compared to our 'weathered' orginal, it's a vast improvement.
Repro versions are available but go for nearer $1000, so for less than 1/2 of that, we've got an NOS item. Which is nice.

Got some pics at home that I'll add later.

The rear light surrounds still need replacing but we'll hang on till something cheaper comes up than the $500 each that's being asked for repros


Another area that was (& still is) letting the car down, especially if it's somewhere like the NEC where some people seem to be there just to point out any flaws they spot was/is the vinyl roof. The one on the car was fitted back in 1991 when we first got the bodywork done, and is coming away in a few places.

We did get a new one sent over by Legendary with a view to getting it fitted before the NEC last year but the vinyl they sent was so wrinkly/puckered/crooked, we had to send it back. They reluctantly sent a replacement which we are now in the process of getting fitted by the guy that did Derek's, last time he had his replaced.

With a bit of luck we'll have it ready to take to Luton Hoo (Who?) this Weds but if there's any delays, we'll just have to collect it after. The most important thing is to get it fitted without any damage to the trim or glass.

Last Friday Stu got the MOT renewed with no problems, but while it was up on the ramp, he did notice a bit of an engine oil leak from towards the back of the engine Didnt worry too much as there's always a bit of a leak from somewhere on these cars, right?
But on the way to drop the car off to get the vinyl done on Saturday, after about 1½ hrs of M25 & M20, the oil pressure gauge started fluctuating between 60 (normal) psi and down to 20 in places. Checked the oil when we got there and it was low on the dip stick. Was ok the day before, so a bit strange

As Stu says, the drip at the lowest point of the trans bellhousing, that usually reddish, looked to be more engine oil coloured so we wondered whether it was a leaky rear seal.

Being the aprehensive types, we've been worried over the weekend whether the car will be ok to drive back when the vinyl's done, if it's anything more than just a leaky seal (like an oil pump problem) but Paul Knight (who built the engine) has said it should be fine if we keep an eye on the oil level until he can change the seal in a few weeks time.

Lets hope he's right, eh??

That's all for now, will add a few pics when I can....

Thanks for reading. If you did

If you didnt, then

The oil can only be either a leak from the back of the valve covers or the rear seal.
The valve covers are an easy fix. So it MUST be the rear seal that is a bugger to do. It's a Mopar.

It will just very slowly get worse. Leaking mainly as you drive rather than at rest. So check the level before every trip and top up during any long trips until you get it fixed.

sell/give your HEI module to pete before he ends up jabbering in a corner surrounded by smahed up MSD hardware



you might have got a dead one but chances are it wasn't earthed you were running it at 9 volts instead of 12- 15 or your pickup wires were backwards

Dave

Thanks Dave x2

It's a Felpro seal so should be ok, but you do get the occasional dodgy one. Apparently. Car's booked to get it fixed on the 29th so will have to keep an eye on it till then.

Might be seeing Pete on Weds, so will see if he wants to try our GM HEI bits.... if we can find them



Found these pics here on my work pc

New & old trunk finish panel:





New one fitted