Power Steering Fluid Leak in Steering Assembly

I have a 2003 Tacoma Prerunner with a power steering fluid leak which appears to be coming from a seal in between the intermediate shaft assembly and the PS gear assembly (see photos below). Has anyone had this issue before and repaired it? Can I simply purchase a replacement seal(s) for this, take the shaft assembly out of the gear assembly, replace the seals and reassemble? Just looking at this makes me think it would be fairly simple to remove these components as there is a lot of open space in this area and the bolts are easy to access, however I've learned that almost every time you try to work on something new, you find it's not as easy as you think. So before I tear into this, I was hoping for some words of wisdom from anyone who's done this before.

Thank you.

 

Im not sure but i don't think its that easy from what i was reading. Subbed tho in case it is. Because i got the same leak. Was planning on just getting a raman'd rack from napa. Havent pulled it yet but will after i get done battling my other issues while it's down for repairs.

 

oh mannnnnn. feels kinda good finding someone with the same issue. mine just started leaking a few days ago, got tired of refilling the fluid so decided to take a look and shire enough there was a leak. most of the time the leak is from the sides of the power steering rack next to the sway bar links but not mine ofcourse! that problem would have been easily repaired with a seal repair kit. mine leaks EXACTLY from the same place as yours! I wasn't in the mood to drop $300 on a new rack so I looked online for some Tacomas going for parts. found a guy who's got 2 old racks that have leaks on the side, he's giving them to me for free this Friday. I'm gonna put on the Pinion/Valve housing from the one he gives me on mine and stick it back in there. I'll let you know if it fixes the leak! good luck bud

 

Here it is. Good luck. Lol. I wished it was easy as some. Where you can just pull the seal and swap a new one. But not so with ours. Figures.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rack-pinion-service-tools-tips.312600/

 

alot more involved than i was expecting

 

hey so I swapped the Pinion housing from the part i bough to my steering rack and it seems to have fixed the leak! test drove it and everything seems to be in order. the whole repair cost me like $15 and a few hours of work. this is a 2 person job. just do the usual, take pictures of parts before you take them apart and don't forget where all the washers and the bolts and nuts go. that's about it! good luck let me know if u got any questions

 

Wait a sec, you were able to get the pinion shaft apart? Without use of the special tools needed? Or is it easier to swap the whole shaft versus trying to get the seal out? Because from reading that thread i posted(briefly) it seemed like way to much work especially with the custom tools needed.

 

much easier to just replace the whole housing part hold on let me try to attach a picture

 

Yeah i just looked through that thread again and makes sense for this job. Well hell ill have to try and source another rack to scavenge. Sweet!

 

good luck man. sure beats spending money on a new rack or doing whatever the guy in that link was doing!

 

Well the tricky part will be finding a rack first, that is cheap and has a good input shaft.

 

I have this same leak...

 

Holy crap. Tried to see what the shaft itself goes for online and its $500 up to almost $800! Wtf!? Why when a new rack is cheaper or similar price brand new from toyota...