How to clean your Power steering resivor

So I discovered this by accident but I figured I would share being that ive seen a lot of people complain about this.

You can take the lid off the reservoir and access the screen to clean it.

1. Drain All the fluid from the reservoir and pump.

2. Remove power steering belt

3. Remove pulley from front of PS pump

4. Remove the two thru bolts that bolt the pump to the engine bracket

5. Once removed, there are 3 bolts holding the reservoir to the pump, remove them.

6. You need to pull the pump and reservoir apart. The reservoir has an o-ring that seals it inside the pump so it takes a little force to separate the two.

7. Once separated flip the reservoir upside down and you'll see clips all the way around the cap. Pry these tabs out using a small screw driver. (Picture below is a tab I already pried loose)


8. Once open you'll see the screen and be able to fully clean it. The best way I found to clean it was to soak it in gas and keep shaking it up and draining the gas out, you'll see all the shit falling out of the reservoir ( picture shows inside of reservoir without screen inside. Its missing because of my stupid mistake.)


9. Once clean put the rubber seal back on the cap and then put the cap back on the reservoir. I used a pair of linesman pliers to reset the clamps.

10. Put everything back on the truck and fill up the reservoir and bleed the system by having the wheels up in the air and turning lock to lock a few times with the motor off, and then start the motor and do it a few more times till there is no noise
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I am not responsible for any damage to your truck.

 

Is this something that even needs to be done?

 

It is if it is whining. Or hard to steer.
Lots cheaper to try first as opposed to a new pump, only to find the plugged screen was the problem, as it was with mine.
I did not have to remove the pulley. Bolts were easy to get at if I rotated the pulley a bit.

 

Ohhh. TIL

 

Now how do you do this without getting ATF everywhere? Haha

 

Drain the fluid first? Kinda like asking how not to get kotor oil everywhere when you rebuild a motor.

 

From what point though? You don't need to drain the whole pump/hoses/rack. That's what I was asking

 

Hmmm.. i just took the reservoir off and loaded the thing full of brake clean and shook it up inside a lot… Never thought to disassemble it. Nice!

 

if youre going to take it off and clean it you might as well change all the fluid out while you're at it. I took a syringe and pulled all the fluid out of the reservoir, and then with the tires up in the air and the return line in a gatoraid bottle i turned the wheels till no more fluid came out, and then take your pump and reservoir off.

 

Turkey baster.

 

Cool, thanks!

 

No problem, and just to be safe cover youre alt and belts below with plastic bags just incase you do spill some stuff

 

Every time I change oil, I siphon the power steering reservoir and replace what's extracted. Usually 8-10 oz is drawn out. 10 yrs. later my fluid and reservoir are as clean as the day I bought the truck.

You can also flush the whole system by pulling the return line. This approach is documented all over the WEB and I would bet there are countless how-to videos on youtube.

 

wow thanks for the tip, i cleaned the shit out of it before but everytime it looked clean i would fine more black particles in the screen.

 

when i got my new to me resivor that had a screen in it, it was bad and took like 3 days to clean out. But i would put it in a cup and soak it in gas, and the pull it up and shake out all the crap. took 2 days of doing that to get little black shit to stop falling out.

 

My steering seems to make a dull "whir" when I turn the wheel and for the duration of most wheel turns. Is this what could be causing it?

 

Now this is the new reservoir that i got from a member on here and you can see the screen was pretty clogged up.

 

Reviving an old post. Almost 5 years later. I’m gonna have to try and take the lid of my reservoir and clean out the mesh. If you remember right @4banger4x4 do you remember what you did that made you lose the mesh? I just wanna make sure I don’t lose mine. I flushed my system twice, took the reservoir off and used a whole can of brake cleaner to try and clean the crud out and my whining went away for a couple days and then came back.
Replaced the power steering pump, with the old reservoir on there. Same whining as with the old pump. Never even thought about taking the lid off the reservoir. Thanks for posting this. I’ve been searching for anything for weeks.

 

I’m gonna say that I pushed on it with a screw driver while the whole thing was still assembled not knowing what at was. Once I took the top off I realized what it was and how I messed up

 

Ok thanks!! Think it might be easier to work on it leaving the mesh in? From the second set of pictures I’m not sure I see an easy way to get the mesh out without damaging it. Or is that what the little cutout is for? With a screwdriver, can I force the mesh out without tearing it?
Thanks for your quick response. I’m about to start working on it.