(quoted from post at 18:11:53 01/01/16) I was frustrated by the difficulty of snaking the vacuum tube into the fill hole with the dash and hood still on, and I didn't think I was getting the tube far enough down to do a half-decent job removing the water, even with a few dilutions as suggested by Soundguy. I was able to pull the rear (left) sector shaft after popping the steering arm off (much easier this time than when I did the rebuild). When I pulled the shaft out (attached to its cover) LOTS of water poured out. I would guess there was at least half an inch, maybe more, of water in the bottom. Surprisingly there was very little oil left, so I must have snaked the suction tube down pretty close to the water level when I attempted to siphon it a few weeks ago.
After sopping up all the water and oil that I could reach from the sector shaft opening, I poured about half a bottle of rubbing alcohol through the fill hole in 3 or 4 pours. I think that the low point in the box is at the front near the lower thrust bearing, so I was trying to dilute that standing water (that I couldn't see or reach due to the right sector shaft) with alcohol so I could dry the box out prior to refilling with oil. Each time I rinsed with alcohol I stopped when it was about to flow out the sector shaft opening, swirled it around with my fingers, and soaked it up using paper towels. After the last rinse I left a heat lamp and small electric space heater aimed at the gearbox for a couple of hours to finish drying it out.
Assuming that I actually got all the water out, this is a much faster method than pulling the whole gearbox to get things dried out. Even if it isn't perfect, at least now I can move snow...
As for how the water got into the gearbox in the first place, here's a photo of the top of the column, where I think it's getting in. Does this look normal? It seems to me that rain can find its way in, but is there (supposed to be) a seal at the top of the column that should be preventing this?
