Steering Gear Pinion Valve: Service and Repair

Pinion Valve Housing and Seal

Removal
1. Remove steering rack.
2. Place steering rack on a work bench.

3. CAUTION: To prevent the ingress of foreign particles into the steering rack, make sure the blanking plugs stay in position,

Clean exterior of steering rack.





4. Fit jaw protectors to a vice and position steering rack in the vice with the pinion housing uppermost.
Carefully tighten the vice-do not use excessive clamping force.





5. Drain residual fluid from steering rack.
Place a drain pan under steering rack.
Remove blanking plugs from pinion housing.
Rotate pinion shaft three times lock-to-lock, to dispel as much residual fluid as possible.
Fit blanking plugs.





6. Centralize steering rack.
Centralize travel of steering rack in steering rack housing.

CAUTION: The pinion shaft must not be rotated from this setting, until a new dirt protection shield has been fitted.

Move pinion shaft to align centralizing index
- located on dirt protection shield, with alignment hole
- located on pinion valve housing.





7. Remove and discard dirt protection shield.





8. Remove oil transfer pipes.
Release union nuts.
Carefully, remove oil transfer pipes-taking care not to distort them.
Remove and discard O-ring seals from pipes.
Place pipes in a clean plastic bag until required for assembly.
Fit blanking plugs to transfer ports.

9. NOTE: Note orientation of transducer for assembly reference.





Remove transducer.
Remove upper and lower screws.
Remove transducer.
Remove and discard 0-ring seals.

Retrieve and discard filter.
Place transducer in a clean plastic bag until required for assembly.

10. NOTE: Note orientation of pinion valve housing for assembly reference.





Remove pinion valve housing.
Remove and discard screws.
Carefully lift the pinion valve housing from the steering rack using a steady upward twisting motion.
Excessive force and rocking of the housing should be avoided, to prevent damaging the rotary valve O-ring seals.
Remove and discard the O-ring seal from between the pinion housing and steering rack main body.

11. Cover rotary valve assembly with a clean plastic bag.
12. Clean and inspect all relevant components and mating faces.

Installation





1. Prepare the new pinion valve housing.
Remove plastic bag from rotary valve assembly.
Fit new O-ring seal to steering rack body.
Fit oil seal protector tool (provided with seal kit) to pinion shaft splines.
Apply grease, Texando F020 or equivalent, to pinion seal lip.





2. Fit pinion valve housing to steering rack.
Carefully fit the pinion valve housing to the steering rack using a steady downward twisting motion.
Excessive force and rocking of the housing should be avoided, to prevent damaging the rotary valve O-ring seals.
Remove seal protector tool.





3. Fit and tighten screws.





4. Fit transfer pipes.
Fit new O-ring seals to transfer pipes.
Lightly grease the seals using Texando F020 or equivalent grease.
Remove blanking plugs.
Fit transfer pipes carefully, to avoid distortion.
Ensure that they are fitted fully into the ports.
Tighten union nuts.





5. Fit transducer to pinion valve housing.
Fit a new filter to pinion housing transducer port.
Fit new O-ring seals to transducer.
Lightly grease O-ring seals using Texando F020 or equivalent grease.
Fit transducer, make sure of correct orientation as referenced in removal.
Fit and tighten new screws.





6. Fit dirt protection shield.
Smear a small amount of Texando F020 or equivalent grease into the cavity of the pinion valve housing.
Fit the dirt protection shield to the pinion shaft splines-make sure that the centralizing index peg locates in the alignment hole of the pinion valve housing.

7. Operate the steering rack lock-to-lock to check for freedom of movement, without tight spots.
The centralizing index peg will shear (this is intentional).





8. Centralize the steering rack.
Centralize the rack, by sight, aligning the plastic centralizing pin on the dirt protection shield (sheared since fitting) with the alignment hole in the pinion housing.

9. Remove steering rack from vice.
10. Fit steering rack to vehicle.