Power Steering Pump wierdness

Replaced the power steering pump in my '98 SR5 4X4, bled the system (jack up front, turn wheel stop to stop 10-15 times), put it all back together. Filled to proper level with Dex III. On first drive, pump goes crazy and pumps fluid out past the lid seal. WTF? Refill, check everything again, drive it for two days everything is fine. Then the next day, on a 10-minute trip to town, blows all the fluid out again. Anyone have any ideas what's going on here. I've replaced my share of PS pumps over the years and never had this issue.

 

Never heard that experience
Ugh….what a fucking mess….twice

But
Many times the pump isn’t the issue

the incorporated screen on the bottom of the power steering reservoir is
Gets clogged up and starves the pump

that guess doesn’t hold water if shooting out of reservoir

-line blockage(doubtful)
-inlet and outlet hoses swapped?

 

ControlCar,
Thx for the response. Not familiar with the screen in reservoir, but this is a “complete” rebuilt unit that came with the res and pulley attached. (I have bought just the pump in the past and swapped those things over.) So assuming that screen would have been cleaned or replaced during rebuild. But these days,who knows. Your post did give me the idea that there might be some piece of skudge in the system somewhere though. Maybe I’ll take the hoses off and blow everything out and see if that makes a difference. Thx again!

 

A firm tht

let everyone know what happens

 

Not that this will help you but... I think the pump only sends fluid when you turn right and fluid returns to the pump when you turn left. Of course I could have that backwards and its even less helpful lol.

 

ive chucked a few PS pumps with my setup, and some of the replacements were bad out of the box… where was it purchased from? i had better luck with Napa than the other parts chains fwiw

is it hot(too hot to touch)? when it spills over, is the fluid foamy?

when youve checked the level, is it overfilled? (reads on hot line when cold?)

 

Well this is embarassing. For the info of those who have posted, I got the pump as a 'closeout' through Rockauto for $80. Yes, I know that's sometimes a crapshoot, but I'm low bucks and even a Chinese rebuild was better than the toasted one in the truck. Also, once installed, the reservoir was filled to the proper level. (I use a cheapo syringe to draw some out if I overfill.) And finally, when it spits it out, it's not really foamy, but you can tell that it's really under pressure when it's coming out from under the cap.

One thing I did leave out is that with this pump - and pretty sure with the one it replaced - I had to bend the return tube maybe 10 degrees backward toward the firewall because there's an AC hose right under it that is in the way of the PS return hose.

So the first thing I thought I try - once again based on something ControlCar suggested, was to remove and inspect the reservoir, which was easy to do (if pretty messy) with the pump in place. The screen at bottom is kind of hard to see, but it didn't look clogged, and compressed air blew through the tube okay. However, just for the hell of it, I cleaned up the reservoir from the old pump and put that on. Filled it up, fired up the engine and — no more 'blowby!' I've been driving it for a week now and no problems. Steers great and smooth.

I can't see inside the return tubes, and like I said, both the new one and the old one seem to flow freely using compressed air. But maybe there's some kind of baffle or something that I buggered up when I bent that tube a little in order to fit the hose on. Anyway, thannks for your-all's input. I can always depend on intelligent posts on this site.

 

awesome job!!!!!!!

was a while ago but a mechanic at a shop posted tht installed a new p/s pump (resusing old reservior) and no change in the owner's original issue. members here told mech about this screen cleaning thing. that worked(im sure he charged owner for new pump thou)