Manual Steering Gear Rebuild Questions

[wenamedthedogindiana]

Hi, new-ish here (and to the MM's), but not new to cars. Getting my dad's old '89 2.0 roadworthy and currently about to tackle rebuilding the manual steering gear.
I got one from a yard that's in much better shape than mine, but whoever had it filled it with what looks like 90w gear oil, and it's leaking.

I have the tools I need to take it apart (one is coming in the mail as I type this), good grease for it, and a seal kit.

My questions are:

1 - does anyone know the torque specs for the bolts on this thing? I checked the manual section, and searched the site, and I can't find any good info. Factory Service manuals are close to (or over) $200, and that's really steep for just this one thing.

2 - Any tips or things I should know before pulling this apart? I'm going to be looking at info on rebuilding a saginaw gear to get a better idea, but I am assuming I should be taking one cover off and pulling one "side" out before the other, yes?

[camoit]

Use the factory manual for the first gen. It’s basically all the same. Just don’t try to take to much play out of the box. Otherwise it will lock up when turning. That’s the screw and jam nut on the top of the box.

[wenamedthedogindiana]

Found the factory manual section for the first gen.

am I crazy? I thought steering gears used grease, but the first gen calls for oil. It has a section about oil level.

do need to use oil for this or is grease really what I should be using? (I have some high quality synthetic high temp axle grease I was going to use). That’s unexpected if it does actually need oil.

[wenamedthedogindiana]

Learn something new every day - called redhead steering gears and they recommended using double aught grease, aka corn head grease for the steering gears.
axle/wheel bearing greese is too thick and will cause issues over time due to hardening, clumping, and grease age. Gear oil is too thin.
double 0 grease is right in the middle and about perfect.