Power Steering Gone Byebye...

[vanbcguy]

A month or two ago I was out driving on the freeway for an hour or two.  When I came off I noticed my PS was gone - armstrong steering, yay!  Pulled in at the next spot and took a look, belt had jumped off or broken and was long gone.

Since the only thing that didn't have a belt over it was the PS pump I drove for a while without power steering.  Now I've gone and put a new belt on today only to discover there's STILL no power steering!!

Pump was whining quite a bit today with the new belt on but seems to have quieted down.  Any chance I just got a bunch of air in the system somehow or something?  Or am I probably looking at a new pump?

[the caveman]

Pump might be seizing. That might be why the belt flew off in the first place.

[vanbcguy]

Yeah, I was wondering about that possibility.  It spun very freely when I was putting the new belt on though...

[Vincent Waldon]

Two thoughts FWTW:

- under normal circumstances you should see turbulence in the power steering reservoir with the engine running, as the pump moves fluid thru the system and back into the reservoir.

- the procedure to rid the system of any suspected air is to turn the steering wheel from lock to lock 4 or 5 times with the engine running.

[vanbcguy]

Thanks Vince, was kind of hoping you'd chime in...

For #1 I did take a look yesterday for exactly that reason.  No signs of movement in the reservoir really.  I'll look again because I was mainly focusing on the dipstick when I checked.

I'll give #2 a shot too...

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

My power steering was not working either when I bought the car. fluid was full, belt was tight, pump spun freely w no noise. There was no movement in the reservoir as I recall. I was lucky to find a good used pump for $7, installed it when I did the timing belt and and now have power steering!

[vanbcguy]

Yeah, that looks like where I'm at now too... Checked today, there is definitely NO movement of fluid in the reservoir whatsoever.  New pumps are listed at $150... booo!!

[vanbcguy]

Urgh... OK, so here's where it gets fun...

My car has an '88 or so motor in a '94 body.  I wasn't the one to do the swap... For the MOST part all the '88 accessories and things were left on the motor.  The '94 PS pump is listed at about $200 whereas the '88 one is $150, so obviously I'd want to go with the cheaper pump.  Looking at the pictures it's difficult to see much of a difference - they seem to have their mounting holes in the same place, etc.

I know I've read before that you can bolt the AAZ brackets to the MF engines and vice versa, what about the pumps themselves?