Well,to close this off. I got the owner to drop in his spare box from his parts car. It wasn't leaking but he still wanted it resealed . Someone has already done something to the 'new' one because i could see the evidence. Apparently they don't any tools apart from a hammer and a cold chisel.
Every nut was bashed up with notches punched into them where they had smashed them undone. 4 balls were missing from the recirculating nut and the nut inside there had been tightened up so tight the straight edge was seized solid. This has the effect of losing all the self adjusting feature and you get constant power steering .
At least the housing wasn't worn out so I made one reasonable steering box from the pair of them to give the customer steering that felt almost as good as new .
So,when it came time to strip and clean out the pump, I drained the rest of the old fluid out and found...The guts missing out of the filter ,which would explain the crap in the box .Mostly caused by years of neglect which has seen the filter disintegrate and then dirt has been allowed to circulate eventually wearing out the whole set up. So , if you want your car to keep going in the right direction....Clean the steering out every couple of years with a good flush and change the filter every time you do an oil change. it's a lot cheaper than rebuilding a steering box and pump.
