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I have a massive power steering leak on a 92 Buick LeSabre Custom.

The attached picture is from the front driver's side facing the Firewall. The Steering Column comes out of the Firewall and there is a rubber boot (red arrow) and the fluid is coming from the bottom of the boot (green arrow).

Can someone tell me what is inside that boot and what it's called? What steps would you take to further troubleshoot this?

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks and have a good one,

MK

The arrow is pointing to the steering shaft boot. The boot protects the steering shaft that connects to the top of the rack. If you have fluid leaking out of the boot, you need a steering rack. There are also hoses and metal lines that connect to the top of the rack's head. You might want to get the vehicle in the air and make sure you don't have a line leak spraying on the boot.

I have a 1999 ford f150 with a steering issue. The vehicle drove fine, gave me no indication of a problem in the steering. I pulled up to a stop sign, turned the steering wheel and the front wheels would not turn with the steering wheel. After further investigation, the ujoint coupler at the steering gear was loose on the gear box shaft. There is no indication of wear, stripped splines on either the shaft or the joint, and the pinch bolt was tight. I loosened the bolt, put the joint back on the gear box shaft but i am nervous to drive it now, wondering why it would have come loose to begin with. SHould i replace the ujoing on the steering shaft, or is there something else i should be looking for?

This is a new one to me and YES I'd be VERY alarmed at how and why this could happen!?

Hope this pic shows...........


You are saying this coupler just came off the shaft at gearbox but bolt was tight? Something is way wrong and needs investigating as of course one of the two or both are messed up. Do you know of a repair there or accident in truck's history?

T

I have a 2003 ford mustang and just experienced a problem where the steering went completely out after investigation I noticed that the male and female tubing of the steering shaft had seperateded under dash before going through the firewall. I looked under the car and see no signs where the rack and pinion had moved nor has my steering wheel placement. Looking at break down drawings of the shaft assembly this looks like just a slip fit then bolt into the rack. It almost seems as the whole thing is to short. Is there a set screw or pin I am not seeing to lock these joints together? I also checked the Yag joint and seems to be fine. Was there ever a recall on this set up cause it seems like a recipe for disaster.

The universal joint connector has a pinch bolt at each end.

The pinch bolts are still intact the separation occurred in the first set of square male and female tubing after the first universal joint located directly behind the steering wheel under the dash. It almost seems like the are not long enough. I purchased the car new so I know no other hands have tampered with this area.

Can you take a picture of where is separated and post the link?

There is no recalls at this time for that.

Which part?

from your parts diagram it looks like part #3C611 the separation occurred in the first set of square male and female tubing after the first universal joint located directly behind the steering wheel under the dash. The tubing appears to just be a slip fit but should not be able to seperate from each other once the system is bolted to both pinch bolts.

That has pinch bolts at both HB1 and HB2 to hold it in place.

i have a 97 ford f150 with the 5.4 L in it. i recently have replaced my power steering box, due to a very bad leak. everything was going as planned till i installed the new power steering box. was hard to get the pittman arm onto the unit so i pulled the steering shaft out to allow me to have more of an angle. At this time it worked i was able to get pittman arm on and install the box. At this point i go to install the steering shaft to the power steering box and it's a good 1-2 inches to short. Now i can only think of two things that could of gone wrong. first one did i buy the wrong power steering box, i doubt because everything matched up perfect and according to advance auto parts it was a perfect match to my previous one. the last option i can think of, is when i installed the steering shaft back in, i could of pushed it up to far. so i figured i try to pull it down and yeah it wont budge at all. and when i initially pulled it out, it was rather easy. so did i jam it up there way to much and if so whats an easy way to get it down a few inches to give me the distance i need to attack it back to the power steering box? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks


Matt

These are not mistakes that should ever happen. The boxes should have been matched up and a difference that big should have been very obvious. If you just don't know where to bolt it back up, then you never should have touched this truck. You may have a tow truck in your future and leave the repairs to the people that know what they are doing from now on.

I'm not the one that couldn't figure out how to install the steering box that he just took off.

Dumb questions get dumb answers