Hey guys. I have an issue here I was hoping for some insight on.

Roughly a year ago, I rebuilt my own steering gearbox. I even went so far as to set the correct worm and sector preload with a 1/4" beam style torque wrench. It has been, and hopefully is, still working beautifully. However, I'm having an issue I was hoping for some input on.

The steering PUMP in my car I replaced in 2015 with a rebuilt cardone unit. It always worked fine except that since day 1, it had a very slow weeping leak from the pulley shaft seal. I finally got tired of it and replaced the pump with ANOTHER cardone reman just a couple weeks ago. As soon as I started the car up and bled the system, the steering worked great but I noticed fluid leaking from the gearbox. I determined that the leak was coming from the top cover of the sector shaft.

I had a helper turn the wheel while I watched the gearbox. The fluid leak from the top cover was a good steady flow but I noticed it ONLY occured when the steering wheel hit full lock.

Again, this failure occurred IMMEDIATELY after replacing the steering pump and the old one wasn't even old. It was the same brand of pump just had a pesky leak. Correct me if I am wrong, but at full lock I am under the impression that the pump recirculates the fluid flow WITHIN ITSELF for pressure relief. Why is this pressure seeming to reach the gearbox?

Is the relief valve in the new pump bad, or is it something else?