My steering gearbox blew the upper seal today (the one where the steering wheel shaft attaches). As soon as I heard the the pump making noise I topped it off and headed to an Auto Zone to pick up more fluid. Long story short, it took me almost 3 quarts of fluid to go 12 miles. I had to resort to turning off the engine at every red light and then eventually even turning it off and coasting after getting up to speed to keep from running the pump completely dry.

Is there any easy way to determine if I've done any damage to the pump?

I noticed that various suppliers sell a steering gear seal kit in addition to a rebuilt steering gearbox. Does anyone have first-hand experience with rebuilding the gearbox? The kit consists of about 17 o-rings, 2 oil seals and 7 circlips. Is this a fairly straight-forward repair that doesn't require any dedicated special tools? If so, I feel more than competent to do it myself, though of course any tips would be greatly appreciated.

When they're professionally rebuilt, do they typically do anything other than replace all the seals, clips and 0-rings?

Thanks.

Gary