Steering gear box leaking input shaft seal

[Cuin95]

Just wanted to add my recent experience with replacing the input shaft seal on a Saginaw power steering gear box. Yes, these seals fail routinely. Yes, you can replace it without removing gear box. Less than an hour job, unless you remove inner fender wheel well for clearance. If that’s the case then closer to 2 hours. Unbolt rag joint from steering rod. Loosen and remove rag joint from input shaft. Break loose but first mark spanner ring and spinner cover. Best to get as close to original torque as possible when reinstalling. Remove spanner nut and then remove adjuster plug. Might need a spanner wrench. DO NOT let shaft which is part of worm gear come out! Hold it in with one hand while removing adjuster plug. If the shaft comes out then the ball bearings which ride in worm gear are free. My experience is now your removing and reassembling the whole box.

Replacing seal in adjuster plug is straight forward. Ring pliers are nice to have for removing ring clip as part of seal replacement.

Hope this helps