10.2 - S-type Steering box rebuild ( Chris Burdo,  January 27, 1998 )

Yes your power steering box can be rebuilt, will it work when
you put it back together, how lucky do you feel? All kidding
aside,it can be done. I have just recently put mine back together
after renewing all the seals and gaskets. I ordered a rebuild kit
from Welch Jaguar in Ohio, USA for about $45.00. Make sure when
you order your kit that you know which box you have ( the first
or second type), also whether or not your box is steel or aluminum,
this determines which kit fits your box. ( I didn't realize
this and told them I had the second type box and still received
the wrong kit). The quick way to make sure that the kit is the
right one is to make sure that the output shaft seal that you
receive is the same one as the one you remove from your box.
(The first box uses a different size seal).

In order to rebuild the steering box you will need alot of
patience and maybe a few Guiness stouts wouldn't hurt too! The
thing you have to remember is that on either end of the worm gear
there are ball bearings and roller bearings,(This is shown pretty
clearly in the manual), so care must be taken in removing the
covers off of the ends. Take the manuals advice and put a large
pan or cookie sheet under the box during the dis-assembly and
assembly stages,( I did this and went one step further and put
a quart of oil in the pan because it took about two seconds for
me to realize that bearings bounce!, nothing like learning by
experience!).

Once you have all the covers off and you are about to remove
the worm assembly be careful to make sure that the nut doesn't
spin around on you as it is weighted to spin towards the right.
should it spin around on you, you will have the ball bearings
fall out from the inside of the assembly. Now you don't say
whether or not your power steering works but just leaks or if
it does not work and leaks. If it works but leaks I don't think
that you have to take apart your worm assembly, (I only say this
because there are 37 ball bearings that surround this worm gear
and I think you only need to take this apart if you happen to
to be in my position where I have no steering assistance.
If you already have some steering assistance I think just cleaning
it up will do, just make sure that you put a clamp on either side of
the nut to make sure that the nut does not spin. The only problems
I encountered during the rebuild is (a) That the rebuild kit comes with
alot of O-rings, you won't need them all but I took careful care to
make sure that I had replaced them all,(you will have some left though).
(B) putting the worm assembly back in was an effort. The manual states
to use a piston ring clamp, well I went out and bought one for up to
6" and I had to alter this tool and cut up alot the sleeve metal
to finally get the worm nut back in to box. The problem is that
unlike a piston in your block this has two rings back to back,
the rings themselves must have the splits in them 180 degrees
apart. To make thing more interesting Jaguar made sure there is
also a lip (for the end cover), that you must get past with the
rings compressed. This took alittle time and I invented some new
words for the english language. Other than this the rebuild was
pretty straight foward. One other item, make sure that you mark
your lower steering shaft settings as they are before removal
of the shaft and box. I found that "white-out" (typing correct)
works pretty good and its pretty durable. Make sure you mark it
on the shaft, the firewall, the box shaft that the lower shaft
is hooked to, the more places that you have it marked than the
easier it is to install!


Chris Burdo added on July 7th, 2002:

Quick word regarding seals for the PAS pump, or any other part that
requires a seal for that fact. Look in your phone book for the nearest
pump repair shop in your area and go there when you are going to rebuild
your steering box or PAS unit. Take to them exactly what you took out of
the unit, (or bring the unit..nothing that I've never done before, that's
for sure), and they will match it up and give you just what you need to make
it proper again. (Oh, it will still probably leak mind you...I'm still
convinced that they leaked from new and that the engineers from Jaguar are
still laughing over it.). I've bought enough seals and O-rings at the
moment to probably do 3 steering boxes for a cost of $20.00. On a related
matter you should be careful on purchasing O-rings. Pump rebuild shops will
give you proper ones that are made to handle oils and whatnot whereas if you
purchase them from a plumbing section at your local hardware store you may
find out the hard way that they aren't suited for your application.