Power Steering Issue

On my recently acquired 73 Q Code Mach 1. At idle, 800 rpm, the power steering provides zero to very little assist. The pump was replaced with a new one by the PO in 2006, 5k miles ago. Levels are fine, no idea what the fluid is. Any ideas?

Does the assist improve with RPM?

Assuming the belt has proper tension, get as much of the fluid out as you can using a Turkey baster and a length of vacuum hose. Refill with Type F automatic transmission fluid. If it improves some, repeat the process until effectively all the fluid is Type F. The old pumps require Type F. Chuck

Something else I've seen people do when replacing a power steering pump or gear is to place a cone shaped filter/screen in the return hose so it catches any metal particles or debris from a failed unit. They just slip into the return hose where it connects to the pump, and when the screen gets clogged can cause problems like you're describing.

Might want to check the condition of the grease in the steering box.

Edit: Just saw my post from 4 months ago. It makes no sense! No grease in a power steering box DOH! Don't know what I was thinking. Carry on.

I'll bet it has power steering fluid in it instead of Type F transmission fluid.

Reviving this one. Our pump is suddenly having problems. I did recently put some lucas power steering fluid in this unit (being ignorant of the fact I should be using trans fluid) It works when the RPMS are up, but at idle, the pump doesn't produce much help. Sounds like I should go remove all teh fluid I can and put in type F trans fluid huh?

Reviving this one. Our pump is suddenly having problems. I did recently put some lucas power steering fluid in this unit (being ignorant of the fact I should be using trans fluid) It works when the RPMS are up, but at idle, the pump doesn't produce much help. Sounds like I should go remove all teh fluid I can and put in type F trans fluid huh?

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You have a plan. Let us know the results. Chuck

I was able to vac out about 10 oz the the first time - i used my hand vac brake bleeder with the measuring cup and a 18in piece of vac hose. Worked pretty good except the hose kept curling up inside, no way to be sure I was at the bottom of the pump. Dirtiest fluid I have ever seen. Almost a dark forest green mixed with a lot of dark brown. I thought it was a little better, and so I took greater care today doing the same thing again, and pulled a full 18oz out - all I could get, and refilled with fresh type F. It seemed better to me, but I'm gonna wait til when it starts up cold - that initial back out of the garage is where its really grabby. Can't be a bad thing to be getting all of the dirty fluid out in any case.

I would like to mention that the steering box on this car recently had some trauma. got put into a ditch, and the drag link was bent so bad it sheared off the bolt at the end of the pittman arm. It all seems to work fine, no real growling or grinding or anything, but I wonder if there could be more going on in there. This weirdness showed up after I "topped off" the power steering fluid when I noticed it was low. Ignornatly using power steering fluid…

Anyway - could be multiple things going on here.

Thanks for the feedback.

Jay

Don't forget to bleed as much air out of the pump as you can. I didn't know you had to bleed them when I installed my first one, and it made a ton of noise. I ended up buying another pump, went through the bleeding process and my new pump has been working great!! Youtube has bleeding videos, they all show about the same method of doing it. Good luck!!

Power steering issue here as well. I have assist at all rpm levels so the system seems to be working ok but if I am at a crawl or stopped and turning the wheel (IE backing out the driveway or parking spot) the system makes a lot of noise like a whining sound and I can feel it in the wheel. Any suggestions? Pump going bad and just not gone yet?

Power steering issue here as well. I have assist at all rpm levels so the system seems to be working ok but if I am at a crawl or stopped and turning the wheel (IE backing out the driveway or parking spot) the system makes a lot of noise like a whining sound and I can feel it in the wheel. Any suggestions? Pump going bad and just not gone yet?

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Drain the pump and refill with Type F transmission fluid. Jack the front up and turn the wheels lock to lock until there are no bubbles in the fluid. This usually solves the noisy pump issues, but not always. sometimes it just needs to be replaced.

Thanks. I will give that a shot first.

FYI

You can disconnect the return line to the pump and crank the

engine around(IGN disconnected) to pump out the old fluid.

Good call. Will work much better than my plan to use the turkey baster.

After adding new fluid jacking and turning lock to lock the fluid

will get airated (foamy) is normal and will be OK by over nite.

Then check level again.

Paul

OK. So I did this. 3x just to be certain that all of the old fluid was out of the system. Still have the nasty whining/growling when turning the wheel at crawl or no speed. Really annoying and frankly embarrassing. New Pump??? I just don't like throwing parts at a problem if I don't have to.

Well, I went thru the process of removing the old fluid out of the system and refilling with automatic trans fluid. The fluid is clean now and filled to proper height. However, I am still having significant issues. The primary symptom is that as stopped or very low speed, the turning can be very difficult, or jerky. This seems to me to indicate air in the pump/system somewhere, but I'm not sure how to clear it. In the videos online they discuss simply turning the wheels "lock to lock" but how is that different from just normal driving? I would expect air to work it's way out of the system under normal use. I have to go full crank on the wheel when parking normally, so how is that different if I do it under normal driving vs with the wheels jacked up off the ground?

I could use some sage advice on bleeding, I am not sure I am understanding it.

I put a brand-new pump on mine a few years ago, and never got the whine or indications that it needed a bleed... and I never really had power steering assist, either. Pulled it off a few months ago and replaced with a new one, and it's all good - one-finger steering.

As I've learned from my pal Jim who used to be a parts guy with NAPA, "'New' doesn't always mean 'Good,' 'New' just means 'New.'"

I've always heard you could use Type F in-place of power steering fluid, but I did not know it was a requirement.