So -- getting ready to do a rebuild on my 95SR when my wife's 89 3.0 SWB decides to kick us in the goolies --- as it's her truck (Daily Driver) I need to sort her out first. Mine can wait.

What went wrong -- water pump leaking from everywhere, power steering box leaking, and oil leaking from everywhere. Intermittent charging system failure.

First question -- we can rebuild the engine (Valves seals, gaskets etc) while we deal with the water pump -- anyone have any experience with these kinds of kits?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220698371469

Viable? Quality? Price?

Also -- the power steering box -- any suggestions on sourcing one.

I have a remanned Alternator and power steering pump on my parts shelf so I got those covered. Anything else to watch out for?

Many Thanks

Rob

where is the box leaking from?

It was from the output shaft.

I did get a reman box off of Ebay 3 or 4 years ago. Had to make a core charge but the gear I got has been fine. Tight - no leaks and no problems for 22K + miles. Cost in the $290-$325 neighborhood. It been long enough that no further info avail on the purchase. I did speak to the lady on the phone and she was very nice and helpful. It went on the 90 SWB V6 A/T.

Can't you just put a seal on it. It would involve pulling the pitman arm, but I'm guessing that's a $5-10 seal.

From what I recall, the seal kits are either hard to find or incomplete for 89 due to the different size output shaft and subsequently also a different pitman arm vs. 90 & 91.

Having found myslef needing the seals also about 3 years ago, I had to buy the seal from a bearing & seal shop and had to buy them in bulk, so I have bags of the outer pitman shaft seal and the inner seals often called "U-packings".

Will have to dig them out of storage. It's a bit of a messy process and time consuming. They will be to make sure your output shaft is smooth and not corroded from salt and regular 2 decades of exposure, otherwise it'll just tear up a new seal. Mine was fairly clean, but I also took the extra precaution of coating the output shaft with an epoxy coating of some sort (Eastwood perhaps?) just on the smooth shaft part where it interfaces with the output shaft seal. Additionally after installation and before putting the pitman arm on, I packed in a bunch of bearing grease over the seal then put the pitman arm over it to help keep the seal 'moist' and prevent it from cracking and drying out like the previous seal had done. 2 years later and I havent had any leaks.

Jim

I would definitely be interested if you had those seals. This truck has always had a tiny bit of play in the wheel - should I anticipate a really worn ball, or if I'm happy with the play there is should I assume the arm itself will be good. I don't know if this is the kind of part that you anticipate to be surprised when you get into it. I'll dig through the parts manual and the parts thread an see if I can identify the parts required for a reseal-job. As always - thanks to everyone who has helped.