Power. Steering. Pulley. PIA.

My original power steering pump finally died on me after 200k miles on my '99 3.4l Tacoma. I picked up a reman and put it in. I flushed the system until only clean fluid came out and bolted it back up. When I bolted it back up, I noticed that the power steering pulley was really, well, wobble-ey with the engine running.

I exchanged the pump for another reman and noticed that the pulley was still not spinning true.

I'm fairly certain that I managed to bend my power steering pulley when I braced it against the pump bracket with a socket extension to remove it. Now, instead of rotating straight, there are enough oscillations that I'm concerned about the life of the pump and the ps belt. I can also feel it slightly vibrating the engine.

Any suggestions on where to find a new pulley? As of now, I'm ordering from the local dealer, but, it's pricey at $170. For that price, I can damned near buy a whole new pump from an aftermarket supplier with the pulley.

 

Is the part number 44311-04021? If it is you can pull a used one from a 96-98 T100 or 95-04 Tacoma with 3.4 engine.

http://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem/toyota~pulley~vane~pump~44311-04021.html

This place gives free shipping so it's a little cheaper at $118.

https://parts.camelbacktoyota.com/parts/1999/Toyota/Tacoma/SR5/index.cfm?action=partDetail&section=STEERING&group=STEERING GEAR & LINKAGE&subgroup=PUMP & HOSES&component=Pulley&partnumber=4431104021&vehicleid=69979&siteid=214329

In the future hold the pulley with a tool like the ones in the Homemade Crank Pulley Tool thread, or use an impact wrench to loosen.

 

Thanks for the suggestion on holding the pulley with the crank tool. I'm on that for the next one of these I do.

It turns out that I did manage to bend the pulley. I picked up a new one from Toyota of Newnan, GA. I brought in a printed webpage where another dealership sold the part for $121, so, they price matched down to the lower price.

I'm not a big guy by any stretch, and the pulley isn't made of thin, flimsy metal. So, I was surprised that I managed to torque the pulley enough to bend it. But, when I compared the original to the new, it was easy to see where the pulley was bent.

When I put it back together, I braced the crank against the frame with a long torque wrench to immobilize the pulleys and belts. Then, I just used a smaller torque wrench to tighten the pulley bolt to 32 ft/lbs per the Haynes manual.

 

Good ending to your story.

It's not just the amount of force that determines what happens, it's the direction of the force. Even us "not big" guys can bend things that are not designed to handle the direction of the force we apply.

I'm just finishing my PS pump work. When removing the pulley, I considered jamming it with something and decided that it wasn't a good idea, as any side load was too much side load. I clamped it in a vice with soft jaws and tried that, but it spun and I decided that a crush load was also not a good idea. Then I remembered that I had made a tool to hold the drive shaft's flanges when taking off its staked nuts. I used it, it worked, and I used it again on the installation.

 

THAT...is a thing of beauty. Good work!