I am having a bad leak from the bottom of my steering box and I've got to drive home (4 hours) this Saturday. I was coming up with some ideas as to how to fix this issue without replacing the power steering. Id really appreciate any good advice you can offer. The leak is coming from the bottom of the steering box and pooling on the frame. Not sure how bad the damage to the steering box is though, RAVE says that I shouldn't even repair it but purchase a new one instead.

Option #1: Close the loop through the steering box by connecting the inlet and outlet houses together before they reach the steering box. Essentially creating a closed loop including the Hydraulic pump (run on the belt), the power steering fluid reservoir and the hosing in between. I wouldn't have power steering this way but it would keep the hydraulic pump from running dry and by pass the leak. My concern is with the high pressure that might be in this system since it doesn't go through the steering box. Putting in a larger diameter hose would take care of that

Option #2: By pass the hydraulic pump altogether by switching out the serpentine belt to a shorter one that can skip the pump. This would be the best option in my opinion but I don't know how I will find a belt to fit the length and dimensions (7ribs?) of our belts.

 

Is it leaking too fast to stop every hour and refill? If you are driving mostly straight(like a freeway) you could just stop every hour or half to top it off. You don't use the fluid unless you are turning(generally speaking)

 

Yeah it's a heavy flow, like the kind that heavy set girls have. Half of the reservoir is gone in like 10 minutes of city driving. I was under the impression that the hydraulics pump is constantly using the fluid to keep itself cool. So yeah it will be using less fluid while i'm going straight on the freeway but it is still using fluids from the reservoir, right? I'm going to a slavage yard tomorrow to pick up a steering box from a newer year disco hopefully. Disco Mike shared that until 99 the steering boxes remained the same in all the D1's

 

That's just plain funny, I might have to use that as my sig....

I think either option will work for you, maybe try to find a brass coupling or a U to connect the two together or just find a shorter belt. The easiest way for the belt method is take a string and wrap it around the pulleys like you are going to bypass the p/s pump and then measure it. Most belt manufacturers use this number (in mm) in the part # like E350PP for example for a 350mm belt; that has been my experience at least when I had to add a longer belt than what was suppose to come on my jeep. Good luck though.

 

Talking to DiscoMike I realized that the high pressure hosing would first of all be pretty difficult to connect to the low pressure tubing coming to and from the reservoir. The steering box diffuses some of the pressure that the hydraulic pump creates and allows flow into the res. The belt also won't work because the alignment of the pullys just won't work for this situation.

Does anyone know if the steering box in all years of the D1 is compatible with the 94? Ive been calling salvage yards and they say that only the 95 will work... Can anyone confirm this?

 

Anyoneeeee???? I've been shopping online to try and find a refurbished steering box, I will take a look at the old one to see if I can possibly fix it but the leak seems very bad aka I probably won't just be changing a seal.
Cheapest I found was $400, looking to get a refurbished one some where!

Here are some links I found...
http://www.roverparts.com/Parts/STC8684ABP.cfm
http://www.landrparts.com/catalog/?N...921+4294952323
http://www.roversnorth.com/store/p-4...all-joint.aspx

 

http://www.roverlandparts.com/1994-1...nggearbox.aspx In other words...yes, all DI steering boxes will work.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...mString=search

 

That's hat I told him also.

 

So i'll be ordering the part from Roverland parts in Florida. You guys have any good or bad things to say about them? 90 day warranty on the part and it is an OEM refurbished steering box for $279 which is a really good price compared to any where i've seen. It also comes with the drop arm. Thanks for the link Spike!

 

I know this is a long time ago, but did that box work for you? I had this exact same problem on my 97 disco. Tried a couple bottles of the cheap power steering leak fix....and didn't work. Figured I'd try the 10$ bottle before I spent hundreds on a new steering box/pump and it worked! I realize this is probably a temp fix....but hey it's been ok now for 3 months.