My power steering went out and i am losing fluid from the steering box from the point were it attaches to the pitman arm. I recall going over a bump when i drove onto a farm and heard a loud thud. I am on a trip at the moment, can someone tell me what it possibly might be?

your steering box needs a new pitman arm shaft seal. One time i bought a brand new steering box that leaked at the same spot...i replaced the seal myself but it began leaking again shortly after.

All you have to do is remove the pitman arm...then there is a lock which u will need special pliers to remove it...once the lock is removed...turn your steering wheel and the pressure from it will force the old seal out....

"All you have to do is remove the pitman arm".......famous last words. If the arm's original on this car, it won't come off without a BRUTAL fight.

The pitman is brand new with about 1k miles on it. How hard is it to remove the seal?

Oh, that's good to know. Whew! You should be good then.

I've never changed that particular seal, so I can't comment on it. LSpann?

i just took off the pitman and i dont see a snap ring i only see the seal.

I could not get the seal off because it is rusted on, i dont want to risk damaging the box so i am going to replace the entire box. My panther is a base model, if i put in a pi steering box will there be any problems? I have read bad things about the ford reman boxes so i want to keep that as a last resort.

The seal should just pop out. Start the engine...run some fluid thru the power steering reservior turn the steering wheel to the left or right lock. All the pressure the steering box produces should pop that seal right out of place. There should be a snap ring that holds everything in place.

You should not have any problems using a police steering box. I have tried many reman steering box and I personally didn't like the feeling of them. There was alot of play and the steering was so soft on the one I bought from NAPA. I lucked up and searched car-part.com and found a low mileage 02 police steering box in my area. The box went right into my 97 p71 and made the car feel tight once again.

i see no lock ring what so ever. all i see is the shaft and the seal when i removed the pitman arm. i bought a seal from autozone and the seal that it had in the package is a metal ring coated in rubber and it is the exact same seal i saw when i took off the pitman arm.i think the seal is rusted on. there is no lock ring what so ever. i dont think adding fluid and turning the steering wheel will do anything.it would have popped out a long time ago since there was no lockring to begin with. the seal was leaking where it contacts the shaft.

does anyone have pictures of it? i wish i would have took pictures of it. i ended up just bolting everything back on and i have been driving the car with no power steering. can i damage anything by doing that?

this is the seal i bought http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/D...=21412_30169_0_

the seal in the picture that is above the lock ring is the seal that i see when i took off the pitman and it leaks around the shaft. when lookat the shaft with pitman removed i see no lock ring what so ever on the shaft.

your ring must of popped out every steering box I have had has a snap ring after the seal. i think its a bad idea to drive your car without power steering you could easily damage the internals of the steering gear(locks up) or destroy steering shaft components.

like i said above i purchased a brand new advance autoparts steering gear and it leaked right out of the box around the pitman arm shaft. I drove the car back to the store i bought the gear from and had the manager come out and take a look.

After he seen where it was leaking he offered me a seal and no charge...so i went home installled the new seal...guess what...It started leaking from the same area... I took the gearbox back and demanded a refund.. The manager and I visually inspected the gear so I could prove nothing was hammered or banged... he gave me a refund... I went down to napa and bought a steering gear from about 175 installed it....no leaks...

i would just put in a new gearbox asap if youre on a budget just get a box from junkyard..I have bought alot of them for around 75 bucks

my problem is finding one that does not have high miles, the last time i went to my local yard all the panthers i saw were all very high mile, ~200K. i was thinking about a reman motorcraft box, do you have any experience with those?

use these guys.

http://redheadsteeringgears.reachlocal.com/?scid=982563&kw=5007907

This is a better link.

http://www.redheadsteeringgears.com/contact-us.html

First one is probably good but the second one was verified.

The verification could be found here.

http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/f26/red-head-steering-gear-scam-262877/

I searched and called a few local junk yards using http://www.car-part.com

i just bought a used box from another 2000 CV and this one also does not have a snap ring on it. how odd?