Leaking power steering gear

[Roger Zimmermann]

Recently, I noticed that the steering gear from my '56 Biarritz leaked rather badly. This afternoon, the gear went down to determine where it was leaking as the Pitman seal and shaft seel were apparently not leaking.
It seems that the leak is from the Pitman shaft adjuster screw. The shop manual says that this screw has a nylon plug and that the screw must be replaced whenever it is removed from the side cover. Very nice. Where do I find such new screw?
Independently to that, I have to overhaul a '58 steering box which was also leaking. The construction is similar to the '56 box, with one major difference: the adjuster screw cannot be removed from the Pitman shaft; there is a plug which was bent at the factory. There is nylon at the end of the lock nut. I suppose that was a change and it was more logical to replace the nut instead of the screw.
As I found in my material some nuts with nylon, substituting that nut to the original one would cure my problem. Am I right?

Roger

[J. Gomez]

Roger,

The ’56 pitman lash adjusting screw has a hole about 1/3 from the top threads were the nylon plugs goes trough. Once screwed in the nylon coats the threads forming the seal.

The nylon plug can be removed and a new piece can be inserted for the screw to be re-used. I made one for mine using a plastic spacer. Maybe someone may have other solutions/alternatives.

The MPL shows the screw is different on the ’57-’58 from the ’56 type, not sure if the ’57-’58 setup would work on the ’56.

Good luck..!

[Roger Zimmermann]

Hi Jose

Thank you for your comments. I will use a nut with nylon; this way, I don't have to modify the adjustment of the pitman shaft.
The '57/'58 screws don't have that nylon insert, the sealing is done with the nut.
I will see if my repair is effective only next year; the season is coming to an end here; at the end of the month, I'll give  the license plates back to the governement agency until next spring. During that period, liability and road taxes are credited to me. A typical Swiss arrangment!

Roger