Steering Column Grease?

Can someone tell me why my whole steering column is full of grease? Is it supposed to be that way between the sleeve and the actual steer shaft?

 

No it should not be that way. And my guess for why would be mental illness on the part of a former owner.

 

one it's not suppose to be grease . did the PO put a grease fitting in fill hole

 

A retired mechanic friend told me that a customer with a jeep once made him to do exactly what Twin2 described. The customer told him to pump all of the oil out of the Ross steering box, add a grease fitting into the fill hole of the box, and then pump chassis grease into it until it eventually filled the entire column and came out under the steering wheel. My friend kept telling him the whole time that the box was supposed to be filled with oil, not grease, and that he was making a mistake - but the customer would have none of it, and absolutely insisted on having it done it his way.

 

One possibility is the box leaked and rather than fix it the Po just filled the box with grease. I rebuilt a swing box on a crane that had been "fixed " like that. The cool thing about it was I got paid by the hour to dig about 50 gallons of chassis grease out before changing a $50 seal

 

Yes, the Ross steering box has the plug removed and replaced with a grease fitting. I know (from reading here and other sites) that this is a no no.
My steering box is full of grease as well as between the sleeve and actual steering shaft, when I first saw it I assumed it was because of a noise or squeak someone was trying to quiet down.
My Ross steering box has a lot of play in it, I tried purchasing "tightsteer" from walcks4wd. This tightened it up a little, but there is still play. I have checked all other moving parts in the steering and there is little play in then, so my thought are that something inside the box itself is worn out.
Can someone point me in the best direction to go from here? Is it worth the time and effort to rebuild the Ross steering box and remove all the grease and replace with the proper fluid? Or so I purchase a whole new box and start from scratch? Any help is greatly appreciated.
I don't plan on adding power steering at any point fyi.

 

more than likely the sector shaft is worn out . tightsteer won't fix that

before you buy a sector shaft read this
Omix Sector Shaft Safety Warning Fellows!!!!!!!