Has anyone put grease in their leaking steering box? what type grease did you use and did you have any problems after doing so? I have a box that is leaking but appears to be good otherwise and heard that you can tap the plug and put a grease fitting in it and fill with grease.
Before going this route, try Penrite Steering Box Lube. It's 1200 wt and works pretty good on leaky boxes. You can find it here: http://www.tradeslang.com/essex/Catalogs/Section K - Lubrication.pdf
NEVER use grease in a steering box, especially one that has a roller sector gear- like your Ford. The grease will not enter the pin hole, eventually leading to trouble. Also, the grease will not lube the shaft bushings/bearings properly. There were reasons these boxes used gear oil and not grease, and good old Ford boxes are getting hard to find. Don't ruin it. Remove it, and fix the problem!
You can use grease BUT !! It needs to be a flowable type NLG 00 like "picker head grease" that can be bought at farm equip dealers. Or use the Pennright stuff.Whatever you do do NOT use regular chassis grease.
I've used the Penrite stuff for years ans it is good stuff. It also doesn't leak out the bottom seal like oil does. It will "flow" back around the worm and roller yet looks like a liquid grease - Its good stuff
ALL the old sterring boxes leak to some degree, my old dads solution was take out the top filler plug and put in a fitting with a grease zerk and pump it full of lubra-plate. I have done it for years and never had it not improve stearing and solve the leekage problem. Other posters on here are right it does not replace fixing it properly but it does work.
It may 'work' in the fact that the grease won't flow past the worn seal, but it isn't 'working' to properly lubricate the close clearance areas (roller pin, shaft bushings, etc.) in this type of s/box! If it were, it would be passing by the worn/damaged seal, same as the gear oil. Also, how pumping it full of grease improved the steering is a mystery to me, unless the box was basically void of any lubricant to begin with. Filling these boxes with grease is not a solution, it's a less than mediocre band-aid. If you want to avoid causing further damage, remove the box and repair it for use with the correct gear oil. It's a no brainer, in my opinion.
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