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?
Pump might be seizing. That might be why the belt flew off in the first place.
Yeah, I was wondering about that possibility. It spun very freely when I was putting the new belt on though...
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.
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...
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!
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!!
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?