70 Manual steering gear

[Finoke]

I'm restoring a 70 R/T and thought I would suck out the old steering gear fluid and fill with new. I found it empty so I figure it must have a seal leak, but I noticed that the gear inside appears to be coated with never-seiz. Is it possible that the last owner ran it empty and greased like that? The car has been sitting for twenty years. Should I try to get the coating out  or just fill it up and see how bad the seal leaks?

[Chryco Psycho]

 Welcome
You may or may not have a seal leak, I have heard of running them packed with grease before. What does the service manual suggest to run , my manual is not handy??  

[Finoke]

Service manual says cover the worm gear with gear oil. But I guess packing it with grease would work? Maybe that was the last owners solution to fixing a leaking seal? I've got time to think about it. I won't be ready to put the engine back in till spring. Thanks
Tom

[Finoke]

I asked the question on another board but didn't mention the grease looked like never-seiz. A man named Dennis from Moparts said "they originally used a heavy grease that was somewhat akin to military spec gear grease. Very thick, and appears to have some molybdenum particles in it. Almost like mixing bearing grease, and neversieze"  
Sounds like thats it. I'm a little confused cause the service manual says cover the worm gear with gear oil, but I'm gonna try running it as is. Steering feels fine.
Tom

[Chryco Psycho]

 As I had said I though I heard of this before & you are probably fine & have no seal leak to contend with. I have seen a lot of Dennis s post he seems to know what he is talking about