AgRunner06

This kinda spun off my other thread.

How hard is the steering seal to replace? What do I need to do to replace it? How much is the part?

Here's a quick pic



Mine has pretty much fallen apart. No thanks to the retarded owner before me who ran the wires through the steering seal instead of using the other hole in the fire wall that is there for that specific purpose.

Hopefully this will make my motor sound quieter in the cab.

Thanks

Astralplane

It is easy to do.
The part # is 45292-35050
It's called a main shaft seal and cost $12.18
To Replace you need to loosen two bolts.
One is inside the truck and is the bolt on the shaft closest the fire wall.
The other one is in the engine bay closest to the fire wall.
Both bolts need to be completely unthreaded and the connection in the engine bay needed some pb blaster.
Once they are freed up push the shaft towards the inside of the car until the shaft comes apart in the engine bay and then pull the shaft towards the engine bay.
Tip: Keep your wheels straight and note position of steering wheel. The wheel will move once you taken apart the shaft. You may have to take the shaft apart again if your steering wheel is crooked when you're driving staight.
Now just install new seal and put the shaft back together.
You'll love the peace and quiet.

AgRunner06

Well, I just got finished with the install of that seal. Overall it went pretty smoothly. I spent more time rerunning those wires because one of them didn't want to go through the firewall. Anyways, the rest of the job was straight forward and didn't take much time at all. But I did have to mess with getting my steering wheel lined up again. No biggie.

After a test drive, all I have to say is "Wow." What an improvement that is. If it wasn't for my intake, exhaust, and a few squeaks and rattles, it would be almost completely silent inside. That was definitely a well spent $14.

To all you 2nd gen guys that think your motor is loud in the cab, I strongly suggest that you check and replace this seal if need be.

Thanks again for the great info.

Gabe

From the pic you can't really tell whats falling apart, how do you now what it should look like? Are you replacing the cardboard bowl looking thingy? I think I get a lot of engine noise too, for 15 bucks I might give it a shot...

AgRunner06

Here's a pic of my old one:



The hole in the seal is supposed to fit snuggly around the steering shaft which is about a 1/2" wide. You just pull down the "cardboard bowl looking thingy" and then there will be two bolts that you remove. Then I had to use a screwdriver to pry it off. It's very easy to do.

Gabe

ahh now I see, thanks for the updated pic....

retrospect

This post is relatively old, does anyone have a picture of what a "ruined" steering seal looks like?

finder216

Retrospect...I know the your post was a few months ago. I just replaced my seal, but already threw the old one away. You can easily see if its bad though...you can look under your dash where the steering linkage goes through the firewall. If you can see daylight, the seal is cracked/going bad.

I followed the instructions above and it took about 30 minutes on my T100. No real hard problems, but I did mark steering wheel, so I didn't have an issue afterwards.