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This bulletin board has been kind of slow for a few days. So, I'll try to liven things up by telling about my latest adventure, the grenaded power steering pump.
I had been losing PS fluid and posted on here about it, saw a lot on bottom of reservoir and assumed it was leaking at the low-pressure lines there, but I couldn't get them any tighter and it still leaked.
Then the other day, pump began making complaining noises, topped up reservoir but no help, noise got worse and suddenly, no power assist. No alternator or water pump either it turned out. I caught on instantly and was a mile and half from home so cruised steadily there, keeping my foot on the gas and cussing traffic on the two streets I had to cross. Got to the corner before my house, car stalled, but it was 120 feet downhill a little, and had enough momentum to get it into the drive.
Serp belt was off pulleys but unharmed, oily as heck, and PS pulley was sticking way out.
Not sure but I theorize my leak was actually from pump, all along, as the front bearing was going bad and letting the pump seal, in behind it, pass fluid thru, which was then leaking past the bearing.
The bearing was all apart, a few shreds of steel from the seals and the bearing cage, several clean normal looking balls, races on shaft and in case looked pretty good still. A big cut in the inboard seal on the shaft, I guess from steel from the bearing
I pulled the pump from my backup car, which was soon to go on the road, and also pulled the reservoir and two hoses from it (no leaks) and pulled the bad pump and also the reservoir and its hoses from that one, in case it really has been leaking. No fun in a muddy drive in winter but it's been a few days of thaw weather and I had cardboard to put down.
Now I'm all but done, buttoning up, but need to change serp belt tensioner pulley and clean up a little more.
It's been throwing PS fluid all over that end of things, and I figured it was coming out of the reservoir and down onto the belts. Probably not so, but out of pump and flinging all over, up onto bottom of reservoir as well as down.
Next I'll need a sunny day to make a junkyard visit, where I know of a '94 with 130K miles and a clean PS pump that I can score for restoring my second car to runnable.
Good side to this is I finally changed out the leaky window washer reservoir with a good one. THAT was no fun, two bottom nuts on long studs are hard to get at. The front one was turning the shank in the plastic reservoir so I had to clamp vise grips onto it, and I couldn't get the nut to turn more than a few degrees at a time.
I cleaned up the threads on the replacement washer pump with a wire wheel on a grinder, and used it also to clean up the PS pump bolts, hose clamps, line that led to rack and also a little Torx screw that holds a clamp on one of the PS lines. I may have to fight to take things off but I never want to fight the same fight over again while putting them back on. Plenty of oil as well.
I really think what went wrong was just the pump, and hoses weren't leaking at all, but I made myself a massive amount of extra work by replacing the reservoir and hoses as well. I needed to make a 12 point flare wrench for the line out of a 5/8" cheapo box-open wrench. 5/8, or 16mm, I guess.
Pump alone is not bad work, one 5/8 flare fitting, one 7mm rusty hose clamp, and the two long 13mm head bolts that hold it in its bracket. Hose clamped hose pushes off pretty easy with a screwdriver once clamp is off. Fluid gushes out, have a pan ready.
To fit it back in I used a 5/8" socket and big vise grips opened WIDE to squeeze the split bushings out to the front, in the forged bracket that holds it. Opens it wide for pump to fit in, then they slide back in on retightening it, pushing pump back to rear of bracket.
posted by 71.173.70...
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