Archived Power Steering Dead

[DavidMartin]

I was pulling away from a curb last night and heard a loud screech, then no more power steering or power brake assist. When you look in the pump it is obvious it is not running as the fluid is just sitting there full. Now for the rest of the story, this pump is 3 months old and is the second one in 4 months. I had the steering box replaced due to leaking and slop and at the same time replaced the pump, the 1st one made a lot of whining noise so NAPA got me another one. I have had problems with the PS for a while, especially when manuvering the RV around and such. The problems got better with the new Box/Pump, but at times the PS would not be fully functional under load. Needless to say the truck is a handfull to drive without the PS and Brake assist, at least I'm getting a good shoulder workout, guess I can skip that muscle group this week in the gym. Any ideas, can the drives go bad like this in these pumps, or is the in-line valve part of the problem. I need help, this is my daily driver. Thanks

Dave

 

[JApol]

I would see if you have a blockage in a line or component somewhere that is over working the pump. PS pumps are usually fairly hearty parts.

 

[DavidMartin]

Thanks, I was thinking along the same lines. I brought it to the shop where the PS Pump was replaced 2 mos ago. Hopefully it's something simple. I'll post when it gets figured out.
Dave

 

[Joe Mc]

powersteering Check this out - not a bad job and could be the culprit. Good luck. Do you know it the shop fulshed system when the box and pump were changed?

 

[DavidMartin]

Well it ended up being the pump, for some reason the shaft broke. Thank god for NAPA, they replaced the pump no questions asked. As for the fluid, when I had the Steering box changed with the 1st pump I went to synthetic fluid as I was having set up problems in very cold weather. I had the shop changes the lines also, although they didn't really want to. Hopefully this solves everything. Thanks for the posts.

Dave