cxxm

I have a 1984 Trans Am 305 L69 (Carburetor) 5spd.

My steering gear has 7812145; 1A 344; 74 stamped on the top. I am not sure of the exact steering ratio.

My steering gear was leaking from the bottom of the pitman and at the stub shaft (adjuster plug) to the steering column.

The choices are to replace the seals or put in a new steering gear.

I checked Auto Zone, Schucks and Carquest for a new steering gear. Schucks was the cheapest. They sold an A1 Cardone (27-6550) steering gear for $116.99 plus a $25 core = $141.99. Carquest was a $100 more. I had to call A1 Cardone (888-280-8324) to find out the turns were 2 ½ to 2 11/16.

Napa Auto was the only place I could find the seal kits. The kit for the pitman shaft seals was 7-360 for $13.79. The kit for the stub shaft (Adjuster Plug) was 7-180 for $8. Each kit comes with a great picture of all the parts in the steering gear, but the instructions are weak.

I chose to replace the seals.

Here is a picture of the steering gear assembly.

cxxm

Pitman Shaft Seals: For the pitman shaft a lot of folks have already written detail instructions on how to replace those seals. The first seal is fairly easy to dig out, but the second can be fairly difficult. I used the trick of starting the car and turning the steering wheel causing the second seal to pop right out under the 1000 psi. Just make sure you put something near it to catch the oil and seal. It took about an hour to do this.

Stub Shaft (Adjuster Plug) Seals: The kit comes with four pieces. Here is a picture of the pieces that I pulled out of the gear.

cxxm

The numbers next to the names are in reference to the steering gear assembly picture.

Instructions:

1) Remove bolt that hold down brake line. You’ll find it at the bottom of the frame. This will allow plastic cover to slide back. It’s up to you if you need more room.
2) Slide back plastic cover that covers the steering column connecting to the stub shaft. It has a little plastic bracket that goes over one of the power steering hoses. Just lift up and slide back.
3) Loosen bolt that connects steering column to the stub shaft. Push column off of stub shaft and collapse the column as far back as you can.
4) Now take a good look. You’ll see the stub shaft coming out of the steering gear. You will also see the retainer clip, which secures the dust seal and seal. You have a choice of just replacing the seals to see if it fixes the leak and not the o-ring.

Replacing just the dust seal and seal:
1) You can remove the retainer clip, pull out the dust seal, and then try to pull out the seal. Removing the retainer clip and dust seal was easy. I tried for a couple hours to remove the seal, but could not pull it out.

Replacing all four pieces from the kit:
1) The first thing to remove is the Adjuster plug lock nut (24). It has slots on the outside of it. I used a flat head screwdriver and hammer to spin it off. It came off fairly easy.
2) Now take a very good look at the adjuster plug (19). It has two small holes in the front for a tool and threads on the side for the lock nut. Here are a couple of pictures of the adjuster plug side and front view.

cxxm

3) Take a count of the number of threads sticking out.

4) Now I did not have the special tool needed to spin out the adjuster plug, so I just used a screwdriver. Take note of the position of the stub shaft, the position of the small holes on the adjuster plug and count the number of turns it takes to take the adjuster plug out. This way you can put it back in the original position. I did not have any trouble using a screwdriver.

5) Try not to move the stub shaft as you pull out the adjuster plug. If it moves a little that it ok, just put it back in the original position. Yes, power steering fluid will drip out.

6) Now that you have the adjuster plug out, you can take off the retainer clip and the dust seal. Next use a small flat head, etc to pop out the seal. Do not mess with the bearing inside the adjuster plug or other piece attached to the plug.

7) Install the new seal, dust seal and retainer clip in the order they came out. Make sure to put some power steering fluid on the seals. Both my seals were cracked and fell apart when I removed them.

8) Next replace the O-ring on the out side of the adjuster plug. Mine broke apart the second I moved it. It was no longer round, but flat. This O-ring might be causing most of the leak, but hard to say. Make sure you put fluid on it as well. Now your ready to reinstall the adjuster plug.

* Note that you can pull out the entire stub shaft with adjuster plug and valve. Here is what the shaft and valve look like without the adjuster plug on it.

* Here is what the inside of the shaft looks like. Note the notch on the top. The worm gear has a little pin that goes into this notch and two pieces that go into the center of the stub shaft.

If you do remove the entire stub shaft you’ll have to make sure that it lines back up with the worm shaft. Just use a flashlight and mirror to look down the steering gear housing to see the position of the worm shaft and push the stub shaft back into it lining up the pin with the notch. You’ll feel it pop in.

9) Slowly place the adjuster plug over the stub shaft and start threading it back in with the screwdriver to the original position that you found it. The seals went over the stub shaft very easily.

10) Thread the lock nut onto the adjuster plug. Use the screwdriver and hammer to tighten it back to where it was.

11) Reinstall the steering column, etc back onto the stub shaft.

12) Make sure you fill up the power steering pump reservoir with fluid before starting the car and moving the steering gear.

13) If all went well the leak is gone. Mine was. Now that I know how to do this I could do it in an hour or less. Good Luck…

emeryz28

Thanks, cxxm! I did this job today and it took about an hour because of your detailed instructions and pictures. No real surprises. I marked everything. I didn't realize at first that the lock nut you were referring to was that huge three inch hexagonal piece on the outside. It came off easily with a hammer and screwdriver. I took pictures of everything to help reassembly if needed. I counted the threads on the adjuster plug (3 in my case) and marked its position before taking a long small screwdriver and hammer to tap loose the plug from the left hole. I was very careful not to allow the stub shaft to come out. In fact, as I was unscrewing the adjuster plug, I was pushing in on the stub shaft. I think it would have been much more complicated for me if the shaft had come out of the worm gear. It probably would have if I hadn't read your writeup on it.

I thought it was interesting that the original seal on the outside of the adjuster plug was square, unlike the large O-ring that came with the kit. At first I thought it was just deformed, but it was clearly made that way. My outer O-ring was brittle just like yours and broke into several pieces as I took it off.

Thanks a million for the writeup. It saved me a lot of time and $$$. Now, no leaks!

DeathMechanic

I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to thank CXXM for the writeup and the pics! Been thinking about doing the adjuster plug seal for a while, but I wasn't sure you could take it off in the car. All the gearbox teardown instructions show it as the last thing you take off. I guess I'll give it a try.

One question... Where is the snap-ring in the last picture??? Looks like you left it off...

DrPockets

Tried this repair this weekend and wanted to add a few things.

Great write-up, really helped out.

I also had trouble getting the second seal out and was totally unable to remove the lock nut due to rust, but I was able to get the seal out by applying a technique that I learned for removing the front main seal.

I drilled a small hole on either side of the seal, careful not to go in too deep because there's a bearing underneath. Then I twisted in a coarse screw a couple threads and was able to get a claw hammer onto it and used the screw to pull the seal out, alternating between sides. Then to pop it out the last little bit I slowly twisted the screw in a few more threads and it came right out.

Used a 7/8 socket to hammer the new seal into place and it took care of the leak!

emeryz28

It was either obscured by the dust cover or I must have installed it after taking the picture. It's been over ten years and still no leaks or problems, thanks to @cxxm and others who contributed to this string.