1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Topic: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak (Read 1094 times) previous topic - next topic

1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

May 28, 2025, 04:30:38 pm

I have searched and read a lot of the posts regarding this Job. I am no expert navigating this forum.

Our coach only has 60,000 miles on it and steers quite well, It is the only one I have driven but to me its good. On the last hour of our trip Sunday I noticed the box dripping. It was always dry before and just started instantly. We were on a very rough road, Not sure if this made any difference! We made it home and it was dripping maybe a drop a second or so. Looked like it was coming from between the plate its mounted to and the box so I'm assuming its the sector shaft seal behind the pitman arm. I could see it from the door just under the driver, and of course splattered down the side of the coach.

I have a couple questions maybe those that have done it can help with.
I have a good coach so I'm not that concerned about saving a couple hundred bucks so this is not about a cheap fix, but I really don't want to do it twice and I'm probably gonna be doing it where she sits.

1) any chance its just the seal, Is that even worth trying with all the labor (im doing it myself)

2) Am I to assume its a Sheppard M100 or could it be an M90 (looks like the serial numbers are hidden until I get it off)

3) if I get a rebuilt box, looks like I see 3 places Redhead in Washington, Chaulk in Huston or SRS in Florida. Florida seems the closest to me in Ms. Any thoughts, experiences, don't try's?

4) I don't think its gonna make it anywhere so I will be doing it myself. Any thoughts on the cheaper $75-100 pullers being sold? I only need it once. I am a pretty good mechanic but have never done this specific job.

5) How about marking for taking it off and getting the wheel back straight. I see the u-joint have a flat spot but Im sure the shaft is just splined.

6) If I have mine rebuilt do I need to adjust the stops. I don't really have a way of getting the wheels off the ground myself.

7) I have most of the tools, A good air impact, sockets, wobble joints and extensions, wrenches. I will need that big allen drive socket and the M100 puller, any other recommendations?

I will continue to read through the posts and see what more I can learn. Its just parked at home right now so Im not pulling it apart until I have a plan.
I am doing this from my phone so please forgive my grammar, Thanks for your time.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #1 – May 28, 2025, 05:15:07 pm

I posted a few years ago concerning a leak on my 97 U295. I removed the seals on both ends of the M100 and discovered a blue sealer(?) had been applied to the seal seat probably during manufacture. The sealer had started to break down and pieces had lodged under the seal lip causing the leaks. I cleaned the seats and removed all the debris and installed them without any sealant. The gear box did not leak for the remainder of time I owned the vehicle. The seals were still in good shape since the debris was soft and did not damage the seal or shaft surface.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #2 – May 28, 2025, 05:18:59 pm

As a note to my previous post, I accomplished this with the gear box in place.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #3 – May 28, 2025, 05:21:55 pm

Now this is my thoughts and you get what it cost you BUT I have done a few.
1 Yes just because the seal leaks don't mean there is a bunch of slack and needs rebuilding.
1a. yes
2. M-100
3. I live in NE Texas so if they need rebuilding I go to Chalk
4. Put a call out here on the forum for a loner
5. They have match marks but you have to really look for it
6. Can't tell till reinstalled
7. 4# hammer

Mike

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #4 – May 28, 2025, 05:33:05 pm

A bunch of folks on the forum have done these seals with the steering box in place. I know red tractor did his in place about two years ago and you could reach out to him on the forum. I did my outside seal this past winter as it started leaking on our trip back from Florida in November. My pitman side started leaking last weekend so I'll do the inside and outside this weekend as the whole sector shaft has to come out to do the pitman side seal. (It was too cold in December to do both for me so I did what was leaking with the plan to do both this spring. Spring is here and the pitman side started leaking.) I've watched several YouTube videos and borrowed the correct pitman puller so hopefully it will go without event. If you are somewhat handy, I suspect you can do it. I'm of average mechanical ability and I'm not too afraid of it. I'd certainly rather spend $50 on the seal kit than $1000 on sending it off to someone else to do. I have read that not bottoming out the steering wheel to the stops helps to protect the seals though my parking spot at our home makes this a challenge and I'm not very good at adhering to this great advice. Perhaps fixing it a second time will cure me of this error.

Good luck. (Not that I believe in luck

,
Michael

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #5 – May 29, 2025, 07:00:44 pm

For what it's worth I replaced my steering gear in my driveway last year (1998 U295) nothing crazy hard although the gear is about 80#, so it's a little awkward. With the exception of a Sheppard M100 Pitman Arm Puller from Tiger Tool there was no special tools. Generator squirl cage fan needs to come out. Redhead in Auburn, Washington did the rebuild. They didn't have a gear on the shelf at the time so I shipped them mine FedEx, less than a 2 week turnaround from Virginia. They did a great job and were very responsive. They included directions how to reinstall. I recommend them. Cost of the job, (puller, shipping and rebuild) was around $1000.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #6 – May 29, 2025, 07:15:36 pm

I had RedHead rebuild mine several years ago. I was very happy with there work.
If you go this route I would check with RedHead to see if they can send you a shipping label. There cost for shipping is MUCH less than you will be charged by UPS or FedX.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #7 – May 30, 2025, 09:43:40 am

Steering gearbox leak

Very satisfied with just resealing.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #8 – May 31, 2025, 03:42:03 pm

I did mine with the help of a buddy and it was actually easier than anticipated. I used the cheap puller and it worked fine (I sent mine to JWhite a few weeks ago - maybe he will send it to you if he is done).

Two tips that helped greatly-
1. Night before shoot everything with PB Blaster;
2. Have some plugs for the lines so you don't lose all of your fluid.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #9 – June 02, 2025, 02:36:43 pm

Thanks for all the replies and opinions. Im gonna pull the generator out so I can get in there and see it better and make a decision which way I go.
Appreciate yall,

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #10 – June 02, 2025, 07:40:19 pm

When I did mine I pulled the gen set forward and then cut the existing hole under the generator larger so I could comfortably work behind the generator and to the side where the steering box is located.
This worked good. I can now get under the gen set, climb into the hole and turn freely in any direction.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #11 – June 02, 2025, 08:22:26 pm

Pulling the generator out..... is a JOB! I'd suggest otherwise..... with the generator installed and moved fwd it is tight, but very doable. I too hole sawed where the tiger tool was and the nut was accessible on the fiberglass "wall" Good luck with the task at hand.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #12 – June 02, 2025, 09:43:22 pm

My recommendation is to remove the generator if you're willing. I had the unfortunate privilege of repairing my gearbox twice. The first time i replaced the sector shaft seals while the gearbox was still in place. My compartment under the driver seat has the generator fan, radiator, coolant overflow bottle and windsheild fluid bottle so it's pretty cramped and access to the steering gear is challenging to say the least. The outboard seal is pretty easy because it's in the cap but the inboard seal was a bear. No good physical position to get into and my arms were too short to reach. There's a great video on Youtube (idocars) that was inspiration to me to try this out. I think he's on this forum but I forget his user name. Unfortunately in my case it didn't work and I was very discouraged when it started leaking again almost right away. The following year I decided to do it right and tied it together with a project to remove the genset, replace the generator bearing, add a buddy plug, clean and test the radiator, oil the fan motor, change the coolant and hoses, replace the coolant float switch and generally clean everything up. Removing the generator was not all that bad. I made a cart to transfer the generator to and was able to roll it out of the way. I'm very glad to have replaced the generator bearing because many on this forum had made me extremely paranoid about destroying my generator due to a dried up bearing. Once the generator was out and the radiator bay was empty access to the steering gear was easy peasy. I pulled it out and put it on the bench to replace the seals. Finding the correct seal kit was a bit of a challenge because there are so many part numbers on line it was difficult to know if I had the correct one. In the end I wound up buying a complete seal kit from Find It Parts and I will say there is a dizzying array of seals in this beast and many of the seals in the kit don't get used in every application. In the end I only did the sector shaft seals and the input and output shaft seals. Be very careful to not disturb the "timing" of the sector shaft gears. I recommend to have the correct hydraulic hose plugs and caps and by using these I spilled zero oil. Some go for reman, rebuilt or "blueprinted" gearboxes. I don't see any need for this. There is no way my gearbox was worn out in 50k miles and there is no slop or play in it so why bother. I'm very happy with my results and knock on wood the gearbox remains leak free. The new seals are clearly superior to the original seals which had the problem with disintegrating. In the end I had several weeks invested into this project but I was happy to get so many different things taken care of. As for tools, this is the highlights of what I needed in addition to a full complement of typical mechanics tools:

pitman arm puller
5/8 hex/Allen impact socket
HD impact wrench
custom generator cart (a forklift would have been more convenient) and wood cribbing
bearing puller
coolant vacuum refilling tool

If you are mechanically inclined and like to do your own work either to save money or to make sure that things get done correctly, I strongly encourage you to dive in. I would say that this project was less physically challenging than replacing the shocks and airbags which I also did.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #13 – June 03, 2025, 07:10:07 am

Since your steering box is good, just add some leak stop AT-205. It works and have no issues using it. I was skeptical at first and it just seemed hard for me to do since I'm the guy who would be replacing seals. Add the leak stop and drive it and the leak will stop. Just an option.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #14 – June 03, 2025, 11:20:56 am

Quote from: John hobbs – June 03, 2025, 07:10:07 am

Since your steering box is good, just add some leak stop AT-205. It works and have no issues using it. I was skeptical at first and it just seemed hard for me to do since I'm the guy who would be replacing seals. Add the leak stop and drive it and the leak will stop. Just an option.

So once you have the seals removed you will see the backup ring has turned into blue chunks. So adding stop leak will be adding chemicals into a sealed system. So these chemicals are supposed to soften and expand the seals to stop the leak, but you may also find that the Radiator fan motor seals start leaking and the Engine driven pump will also be exposed. All the lines that have not been touched since installed will also be exposed. Pandora's box. Just an option that may cause a plethora of other issues.
Steering gearbox leak

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #15 – June 03, 2025, 11:29:20 am

Quote from: Geodmann – June 02, 2025, 09:43:22 pm

There's a great video on Youtube (idocars) that was inspiration to me to try this out. I think he's on this forum but I forget his user name.

Mark D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7MEnfl_gEc

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #16 – June 03, 2025, 11:41:54 am

Im hoping to be able to move the generator forward without actually removing it. Put my 2x2x11.5 frame chocks in place and crawl under there. Mines a 270 with the Isuzu powerTec without enclosure. I have not used the generator drawer yet so it will all be a new experience.
I am not the least bit afraid of doing it. I am a capable mechanic and this seems more like basic stuff, its just all big and heavy.
Again I am not into it just yet but its gonna happen pretty soon.
Thanks again,

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #17 – June 03, 2025, 01:05:34 pm

duff,

On your age coach you might get lucky in that the generator wall next to the gear box already has a door in it. Some coaches do but the screws are hid behind the insulation. So once you roll out the generator look real close at both sides of that wall for the removable panel.

Mike

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #18 – June 03, 2025, 03:04:05 pm

Thanks,
I havent crawled up in there yet to see what Im going to need to do. But I would not have a problem cutting a door there if I needed too.
I need to re-do the insulation anyways. So it will be a good time tear all that old stuff out.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #19 – June 03, 2025, 07:54:35 pm

Quote from: Wpduffey – June 03, 2025, 03:04:05 pm

Thanks,
I havent crawled up in there yet to see what Im going to need to do. But I would not have a problem cutting a door there if I needed too.
I need to re-do the insulation anyways. So it will be a good time tear all that old stuff out.

That is what I did and it worked fine.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #20 – June 07, 2025, 03:48:36 pm

I have a 1998 u270. I had steering box seal horribly on a trip. I was lucky that a hydraulic shop was within walking distance! I was able to get a hydraulic union that allowed me to connect the supply line to return line. I drove the RV directly home on the highway with big strong arms. It was not really an issue, just avoid parking lots!

Once home, I swapped in a spare steering box I had (I acquired lots of a parted out foretravel years ago). I did not remove generator, or anything else. Drilled no holes. It's pretty simple heavy-truck type job. Use a small floor jack and a helper to get the box out and in position.

Then a few months later, I swapped my original Redhead rebuilt box back in place. I was much faster the second time around. Figure 2 hour job for the skilled guy with the correct tools.

Re: 1998 U270 36 foot steering gear/box leak

Reply #21 – June 13, 2025, 02:27:14 pm

I think Im just gonna have it gone through. Too much work to get it out and not rebuild everything.
Anyone used SRS out of Tampa? I spoke with a really nice guy he said he would rebuild it and get it 24hours from when he gets it.
They didn't have a core on hand but said he would be glad to rebuild mine and would send me a ups label.
And does anyone happen to know what size those plugs need to be? standard pipe plug or a cap?

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