While I'm waiting for engine parts to arrive, and I have the front of the car pulled apart, I was wondering how much trouble I could get into by taking apart the steering box. Mine appears to be leaking (covered in crud). Is this advisable? I've heard that sometimes you shouldn't play with these things.

Cheers,
Craig

I did it. Box was no trouble but getting it out of the car was a pain in the a**!
The case is aluminum and mine had fused itself to the mounting bolts via bi-mettalic corrosion. One of the bolts simply would not come out. local shop gave up too for fear of cracking housing with too much force. Ended up drilling out the bolt (very carefully).
Next, the ding-dong input shaft flange would not come off. Flange must be removed to get to the input seal as the whole thing is extracted trhough the box complete with the worm gear. Again, persistence paid off as I eventually rigged a bearing splitter and two-arm puller to sloooowly drive it off (with only minor damage I was able to dress out with a file).
Once those little hurdles were surpassed, I had to break out the metric tools (one of the few places they are used next to brake calipers and fuel tank tap), disassemble, drive out the old seals, order new via internet, clean and inspect box (in pretty darn good condition, no new bushes required) and then reinstall seals and assemble. I used some red-line 90w-140 I happened to have at hand to re-fill.

All because I wanted to replace the bushes at the shaft union!

Oh, by the bye, should you have too little pin engagement at the union, remove the horn ring and steering wheel nut and use a vice-grips at the union to squeeze the upper shaft farther up into the housing before replacing the nut (and subsequently the horn ring). Took an accident while re-positioning my steering wheel to figure that one out!

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Mike!

Kinda is my situation. In the middle of an engine change out. A while ago I had purchased a rebuild kit for the steering box, due to the thing leaking like crazy. When I took the B18 out I ran out of excuses to not fix it. I started to take it apart and realized that the bushes were beyond what I could do with my meager collection of tools (and skills?). So I brought it to the machine shop I use, just for advise mind you, so good ol Jim could check it out and guide me. Wound up leaving it there for him to rebuild. Cost $40 and the thing seems just like new, including a glass beading type cleaning for the exterior and shafts. I'm planning on putting 90 wt. in it.

Steering box leakage is a common problem. It is a major hassle and expense to fix it the right way, so I did what a lot of other people do. I drained it and filled it with grease. If you do this use the lightest grease you can find.
Tom

On that, I'd just clean it first.. then drive for a while and see if its actually leaking. The crud on it could very likely have been flung on there by the fan and engine pulleys and belts... Even if it does leak a little, it would likely leak from the bottom and go to the ground. Check the level.

I wouldn't mess with it until you know for sure where the crud is coming from.

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-Matt I ♥ my ♂

I top my steering box every third month...less of 1 cm loss. Previous owner fill with grease the box...I dismount, clear, and use gear oil (SAE 90) by now.