Stiff steering issues

Over the last two weeks my steering has began to stiffen, getting more stiff the sharper I turn the wheel. I've tried some power steering additives over the past few days and haven't noticed any difference. I'm assuming im dealing with either a worn out power steering pump or worn out rack and pinion. Anyone else ever dealt with this or have any tips on how I can better diagnose the issue. The truck has close to 300k miles so I am not surprised.

 

Ever flush the power steering fluid?

 

I cycled come cleaner through it a few days ago so I ended up replacing about half the fluid with new fluid. It looked really clean though, it had only been in there for less than a year.

 

Does is squeal when you turn the wheel? Is the rack leaking fluid at all?

Jack the front tires up and cycle the steering. If it feels relatively smooth then you're likely not dealing with a warn/damaged rack or other steering components. (ball joints, TREs).

When was the last time you've changed the balljoints or tie rod ends? Definitely inspect those. They may just be due for a replacement even if they aren't the primary problem.

I've heard a clogged screen (like @Gibo mentioned) can be a big problem, so def check that out.

 

OP, I think you will benefit greatly from this video. What @Gibo mentioned is my advice as well. Pull your reservoir off and give it a thorough cleaning. Do this before dropping money on a new power steering pump or new steering rack because there's a good chance this will be your fix. For the flush, people have told me they didn't need to run the pump to move the fluid through the system. With the front end jacked up off the ground, simply turning the wheels back and forth effectively moved the fluid through the system. Get it a try. Turn the wheels back and forth a couple times, refill the reservoir and repeat until clean fluid is coming into your catch container. For the cleaning of the reservoir screen, have plenty of brake cleaner on hand, get 4 cans, and pay attention to how I bent the spray nozzle so I could get in from the bottom port and effectively spray at the needed angles to cover most of the screen surface area. Alternating spraying from the top and bottom will loosen the debris and you'll get the screen very clean with this technique. It's time consuming and you'll be getting high on brake cleaner but it does work.


https://www.youtube.com/embed/5k61KXRK8bM

 

What I did that worked very well was to take the belt off and turn the pump with an air ratchet on the pulley bolt. Engine not running of course. Easier and worked better than turning the wheels back and forth. I first tried it using the engine to turn the pump, but couldn't keep up. Pumped way too fast.

 

That's pretty smart. I like this!

 

Thanks for feedback guys.

 

And another project on my short list. Thanks for the inspiration Tim!

Question: if the reservoir cap seals like the radiator cap does, I wonder if putting it back on the reservoir body before initially undoing the hoses/removing the reservoir proper from the pump would minimize the leakage, since there would be somewhat of a vacuum inside?

 

The steering shaft joint went bad on mine and I had similar problems. Mine started out just difficult to turn in one direction but then became super difficult to turn at all. .got it replaced and it's all good now.

 

I have been dealing with really stiff steering for a while now. The wheel turns easy at high speeds but it was really difficult to turn at 90 degree intervals at low speeds.

I did the power steering flush that @Timmah! posted here, and my fluid was really bad. The mesh screen was pretty clean. Afterwards my steering was still just as stiff.

I then pulled out my FSM and reviewed the tilt steering column components and found a fix. My steering is now really clean, infact I may have added a bit of slop so be careful on over greasing. Warning, this fix has a potential to mess up your wheel alignment, it could potentially permalock your steering wheel resulting in a airbag sending to fix if done incorrectly. Screw up could result in your steering wheel locking up while driving aka resulting in a crash. I'm not 100% certain on these details, I cowboyed through this so don't be like me, read through the airbag section of the "restraint system" before you go near this. If you end up yanking on your wheel wrong during this it can result in serious damage. If you separate this U joint incorrectly it could result in faulty steering. If you over grease it or break it it could result in faulty steering. Do this at your own risk.

There is a double knuckle that's part of the "Universal Joint No.2" that is attached between the steering column assembly and the "intermediate shaft no. 2" (intermediate shaft No.2 is the rubber joint they attaches to the steering rack and steering column shaft)

The "Universal Joint No.2" is the issue, and the FSM does not explain how to clean or fix it. It is behind a plastic cowl with 4x10mm nuts at your feet where the steering column goes into the firewall. Before you open the universal joint, watch the first video posted. There ia a "nipple" or round elbow on each mating side of the universal joint that mate to a free spinning plastic piece in-between them. If those two "nipples" or "elbows" don't re-engage into this plastic piece your wheel will eventually lock up at some point and if you're on the road that would be possibly fatal.

Try greasing the universal joint before opening it. Use a greasless penetrating lube like LPS that will move dirt, and then some auto grease. Don't open it unless you know precisely how to reassemble it.

If exterior greasing fails, you'll want to pop the "Universal Joint No.2" mating face open, it has 4x10mm bolts (I don't know the torque spec it's not given, I went with 26ftlbs) and put some grease in-between the mating face as deep as you can, and then on either side of the elbows of the joint. I first hit it with some greasless lubricant like LPS, then automotive grease. I don't suggest WD-40 because it doesn't push out dirt and collects dirt. I was not able to completely remove the assembly it yet but I'm working on a way to do so to make sure it's 100% functioning.

Here's a video of what it looks like fully removed: https://youtu.be/XirwbszshJg

If you want to really remove it, I'm not 100% certain on how to do that and I might work on that this weekend. To begin removing it you probably want to take the "intermediate no.2 shaft" off the steering rack.

You can see Tim starting to remove the "Intermediate No. 2 shaft" here at 22 minutes in his steering rack video. If you keep watching he will show how to disconnect it:
https://youtu.be/wZoRP5ogrK0#t=22m0s

Attached are the FSM images of the 4x4 shaft assembly and images of mine.

If anyone has a better way of removing, opening and cleaning this part please let us know. If anything I've said here seems wrong or dangerous let us know.

This is what worked for me.