I pulled out of my driveway and discovered a puddle of transmission fluid (?) under the car - after jacking it up I traced the leak to this thing - front drivers side near the wheel (you can see the red drip). What is it and how do I fix it? (1969 Grande 2 Door Coupe)
That is a grease fitting for lubricating the ball stud.
Attached to the ball stud area is the control valve, the part all four hoses go to. Inside the control valve is a spool valve that slides back and forth and directs the fluid in the power steering system. There is a seal on each end of the spool. For red fluid to be in the ball stud area, fluid must be leaking past at least one of these spool seals and into the ball stud area, which is only designed to hold grease, not fluid.
The control valve & ball stud assembly needs to be rebuilt.
Yeah, at first, I thought it may be a hose leaking, but if it's coming from that zerk, you definitely need to get that rebuilt. They make rebuild kits, but I don't know how easy it it to DIY. You could always go to a local parts store and get a remanufactured one, but they cost over $200(in my experience)... I know there is also a guy around here that rebuilds them. Just do a search on Power Steering Control Valve and you should be able to find it.
Find a reputable rebuilder and have it all done. Pump, new ram, rebuild c/v, replace hoses.
Man, I went through all of that stuff went I bought the car. It was horrible, mechanics reversed the hoses, set the car on the floor, and held the wheel. They smashed the ball stud and broke the ram mount off the car. That was just the beginning, I need therapy after what I went through. I'll say that no one else works on my car but me now.
Covered up to my elbows in the dark with burnt atf,,,, uuuuuuhgh, I feel sick to my stomache.
Eventually converted the car to manual, still had play from a loose u-joint in the tilt column. Was great otherwise, except the wife couldn't control the car in parking lots. She ran over quite a few planters.