Archived lost power steering & power brakes

[skillsaw]

I drove about 50 miles this morning, got to destination & shut turned off truck. Started about 45 mi. later to leave & had no power steering or power brakes. ???



-About 50* outside

-Had a weird noise for a while when turning slow into parking lots & the like. . (ball joints/axle knuckles I thought) Not sure if it has anything to do with this.



Is there a fuse or relay for the hydroboost? Could that unit be the problem? P/S fluid & Brake fluid at good level. hmmmmmmm

Any help would be gladly appreciated



Thanks in advance



-Erik



by the way... . u want to feel how heavy your truck is..... get rid of the power assist!!! 50 miles w/ no steering or brakes - feel like I went back in time!!

 

[JFinke]

You have either lost the pwr. streering pump, pump drive, or the vac. pump that drives it. Jake

 

[skillsaw]

Is there any easy inspection/test I could poke around with for this??



TIA



-Erik

 

[SS]

It does sound like it could be the hydroboost accumulator. Mine did a similar thing some time back, but there was a puddle of fluid where I had left it parked and the fluid level was low. The blue anodized bottle by the brake master cylinder holds compressed nitrogen - is designed to give you a few good brake applies if the power steering/brake assist is lost. If the bottle bursts, the nitrogen forces fluid out of the p/s pump reservoir - check the fluid level again. I had to rev the engine and crank the steering back and forth to work the nitrogen out. You'll have to do this in order to check the accumulator.



If you do get it working again by doing this, add fluid to refill the system. Then with the truck running work the wheel back and forth to pressurize the system. Shut the engine off, wait a while (manual says one hour!), then apply the brake pedal. Hard pedal means no assist and probably no accumulator. If you can't tell for sure, drive the truck 1 mph in a BIG, empty parking lot, shut the engine off and try to brake. You already know how bad that is. If it is a bad accumulator you can drive the truck, but if the engine stops (say you run out of fuel) then you have no brake or steering assist. In other words, make sure you fix it. Might hope it's something else though because they are not cheap. Good luck.

 

[skillsaw]

Thank you much DodgeTorqueWagon - I'll be trying that today... . I'll update when I have an idea.



Thanks again,



Erik

 

[skillsaw]

No Improvement no matter what I try..... ugghhhhhhh!! I spun that wheel a hundred times over!!, Changed fluid, drove around a bit, spun the wheel... . nothing

Is the blue cannister supposed to be loose on the hydraboost? I've never checked it before, but now I was just able to spin it in place. Any news with that?



TIA

Erik

 

[PHarris]

I have two dodge company 3500 trucks. I have replaced power steering pump with your exact description twice. Look for pressure hose coming from pump to brake boost and crack it a small amount if you dont have any fluid it is a bad pump. and or a broken coupling piece inside the vacuum pump to steering pump adapter. They are not a great pump but some of the aftermarket ones ie napa are better then others ie carquest. The job sucks but per the service manual remove all the stuff you can easily get out of the way like the intake plumbing battery cables etc. get a good flashlight and two beers. Do not let anyone talk you into pulling off just the steering pump you must take both the vacuum and steering pump off together and install the same way. I paid a mechanic the first time and he tried to save time by removing steering pump only big mistake as it will come off but you will have hell getting it back together with the little adapter piece. So pull the whole thing off of the engine block get it on the back of the tailgate pull off steering pump and reinstall new one about 100. 00 dollar pump from napa i think . first time i did it was about a 4 hour ordeal. chrysler book says more then that . second time was 2. 5 hours. Be glad you were parked the second one that failed on our truck did it driving after a tire blew luckily we got it stopped with only 1 fiberglass piece of crap fender blown off the dually. P. S. i still have scars from leaning over the battery corrosion with a scraped arm , as I said remove as much as you easily can to make the job easier it is a very tight fit to get things off down there.