Hef

I have a 79 vette that has a leaking power steering control valve. I have everything removed including:

The control valve is now loose and I can rotate it slightly.
I now should be able to take the Pitman arm off the ball stud according to the manual, but I dont see how that is going to happen. The OEM service manual says to tap the side of the arm to loosen it, then pull down on the relay rod so the ball stud will clear the pitman arm? Huh? Tried that and the pitman arm/ball stud seem like they are "welded" together.
(No rust on this car, never driven in water so thats not an issue. )
Do I have to take the Pitman arm totally off the car? If I do that will I have alignment issues later? Thanks for any help you can provide.
Perhaps there is a web site where someone has documented how to do this?
Oh by the way, I purchased a rebuild kit from a local parts store. 17.00 bucks but it did NOT include a couple of key parts that the Ecklers kit does include. Namely the ball stud seal and clamp. So I plan on taking that back and buying the Ecklers kit.



Hef

Matt Gruber

http://community.webtv.net/MATTGRU/Quickwaytoreseal

Hef

Thanks for the reply Matt. My CV is leaking from out of the ball stud seal. I assume that seal is just to keep dirt out, so, the fluid is blowing past some internal part in the CV?
So it looks like you rebuild the CV while its still on the vehicle?
Hef

Matt Gruber

i revised my article. i hope it is clear now.

vabeachvette

My control valve looked like it was leaking fluid also, I had checked the fluid about once a week and it looked ok. I went to drive the car to work the other day and when I backed out of the garage and turned the wheel there was a pretty good whinning noise, pulled back in the driveway and got out to take a peek, when I turned the wheel there was fluid squirting out of the control valve, checked the fluid level and it was empty. I went underneath and couldn't actually pinpoint where the leak was coming from on the control valve, so I tightened up the line attachments (maybe a 1/2 on each bolt compression fitting) and filled it up and it seems to be ok right now. But I will probably have to change the valve. My question are: was it easy to use the kit to fix the control valve? Looks like a remanufactured one is about 100 bucks. Any ideas why it is not leaking fluid? I don't think the 1/2 turn on the 2 lines really made a difference.

Hef

Well I pulled the 1/2 of the cv per your article, and it wasnt to bad - up to putting the CV back on. Whats tough is keeping the annulus seal, "flat washer" , annulus spacer and gasket all together with the bolts, then putting this back on the car. I did get it on, but when I fired up the vehicle, I had oil squirting out the ball stud seal from blow by I guess.
So I took it all apart and its on the bench now. What is hard with this install, is the annulus seal does not easily go into the bore of the CV, so somehow you have to help it along. But how to do that when trying to put it on the vehicle? I mean its 100% out of the bore, resting on the spring retainer. So when you compress it when you tighten the bolts, you hope its all going in straight. Mine must not have been. The annulus is slightly bent, so I will have to straighten that.
I think line 7 in Matts article explains how:

"7. start lip seal (ball end) with screwdriver as bolts are tighened(allen head replacements are much faster)"

I dont see how that can be done while trying to hold it all together and slap it on the vehicle. Maybe I am doing something wrong. I am 90% done, just got to figure out this last part! Thanks,
Kevin

Matt Gruber

well
2. turn wheels full right.
this is a MUST.
i used a dental mirror to check the seal as it went in.
article is updated (again )

vabeachvette

The job sounds like a pain, but the part about getting a manufactured one that may be worse than the one you have bugs me. My steering is very tight and I love the way the car handles, so I am kind of biased toward just trying to use the kit on mine, post any new recommendations after you get yours up. Thanks for the info.

Hef

Ok I have taken some pictures and posted them on my website at:
http://69.204.91.91/vette/index.html let me know if this link doesnt work.
Matt let me know if these pictures look like I am assembling correctly if you dont mind.

As I said, the tricky part is making sure its lined up as its going in. I guess with that thick washer pushing down on the black annulus seal, it should force the seal into the bore regardless. As long as the seal is lined up, I would think it would have to go in all the way and seat/seal. I plan on trying this again today or tomorrow. I dont mind doing this as my CV is original with 40k miles on it. Eventually I will get it right.

Matt Gruber

looks good-i assume the spool is in before assembly

Hef

Yes spool was in with its new seal.

Jim Shea

Use common vaseline petroleum jelly as an assembly aid to lubricate the lips of the seals and the o-rings. It will help the lip seals slide into the control valve bores. It will also provide a sticky medium to hold the o-ring in place on the face of the control valve while you assemble it to the adapter. Make sure things are very clean as you assemble the parts. The jelly will tend to gather and hold contaminents as you handle the parts and assemble.

Matt Gruber - have you considered sending your paper over to Terry Rudy at his www.corvettefaq.com websight? I think that it would be a valuable contribution. If you do, make sure that it is entitled Control Valve - ....... so that it will be located along with the numerous scans of the control valve assembly and balance information from the Chevrolet Shop Manual.

Jim Shea

JAF1

Hef,

Just did mine this weekend also. Had the same problem. Put it together two times before I saw what I did wrong. When I took mine apart the u-washer fell to the ground before I could tell were it went. When I put it back together I was putting that washer in front of the larger spring. With the extra thickness of the washer the whole assy would not compress far enough and I kept bending that backing plate when I put it back on. Then it would leak right out. I "think" that washer goes in the middle of the large spring. It fit real nice and the whole assy sits down in there now allowing me to bolt it right up. All seems to be working just great without any leaks.

Could someone please confirm the placement of this washer.

Thanks.

CA-Legal-Vette

I'm almost positive from your description that you have it right. I did this rebuild a couple of weeks back and I rmember thinking that the split washer looked to me that it was in the wrong place, even though it worked fine. Just leaked badly. The diagrams had the washer where you ended up putting it.

I had a great deal of trouble getting the bottom washer into the cylinder on reasembly. his is the washer that sits on top of the backing plate. This was fairly similar to what you were describing. I ended up having to gently reshape the backing plate with a bfh to get it flat. After that, I reassempled but didn't tighten the bolts all the way and used a thin slot screwdriver to put the washer into place.

Works like new now.

JAF1

CA-Legal-Vette,

I'm now 99.9% sure that I did it wrong. That u-washer should be between the CV housing and the spring. Not in the middle of the spring. I guess that's why it was easier to line up. Looks like mine is coming back apart.

CA-Legal-Vette

Jeff,

I'm going to e-mail you a couple of things that Jim Shea sent me when I had the same problem. He also has a number of articles on corvettefaq that might help.

On the bright side, after doing it three times, i got pretty fast at redoing it.

JAF1

CA-Legal-Vette,

I replied to your email. My address is jefffarrar@yahoo.com just in case.

I know what you mean about taking it aprart and putting it back together. I think I could do it blind folded. Of course, once the correct way would also be nice.

Hef

Well I reinstalled the control valve, before coming back to this thread, and I used some grease to hold the various components together. Hopefully this will not cause a problem. I see that someone recommended using petroleum jelly- good idea.
Anyway no leaks! However, the steering wheel went hard over to the right, and it stays there when the engine is running. I am wondering if that is caused by the control valve adjustment nut, or something else? Pretty sure the hoses are in the right spots.
I am still amazed I got everything in and no leaks.
I did notice that it seemed easier to get the nut on this time. ( I had more thread to work with) The first time I installed the valve, and I had a misalignment, the nut had barely enough thread engagement to get started.

I did try adjusting the nut, and it just made it harder to turn in one direction. Thanks for any advice.
Hef

Hef

regarding the washer location. The vette manual for a 79 shows the u shaped washer or Spring Thrust Washer located over the valve reaction spool in a groove. When you put these two in the bore as one , the washer holds the spool in place. ( a little spring goes in the bore first)
Jeff

CA-Legal-Vette

Hef,

Easy enough to fix. If you haven't put the dust cap back on, you need to turn the control valve adjusting nut (hopefully you have the nylock one from your rebuild kit on) and start tightening the nut while COUNTING THE NUMBER OF TURNS CAREFULLY until the wheel just starts to turn left. Then turn the nut back half the number of turns.

DONE

One of the manuals suggested leaving the power piston unattached at the frame end and doing the same adjustment by watching the piston extend and contract. Pretty clever really.

If, like me, you've already attached the piston and are too lazy to remove it, you can raise the front end on jack stands so both wheels are off the ground and do the same thing.