My Strange Power Steering Problem. Any Ideas?
 

My '89 has been leakin power steering fluid for a while but it hasn't been a big deal cause I've been driving my awesome Geo. The weather has been nice the last few days so I drove my truck to work a few times and decided I was gonna figure out where this leak was so I could fix it.

So I drove it in our shop at work, went in the pit and cleaned the bottom of the pump and the lines all up, filled it up with fluid and started it up. Went back down in the pit and no leaks anywhere. So I got my buddy to turn the wheels back and forth and still no leaks. Played with it for a few minutes and then shut it down and fluid started coming from everywhere out of the filler cap. Let what was going to come out come out and really didn't know what else to do. Power steering worked great after that for a few days and then today I cut it off with the wheels turned and it dumped the rest of the fluid out of the filler cap for some reason. Does anybody know why it would do this and why it only does it sometimes. Any help would be appreciated, that truck is not fun to drive in the small parking lots and streets of Tulsa wothout power steering.

Thanks

May be getting air in the system. One of my old 89's had a rusty return line and would get air in the system and do all kinds of crazy stuff. I made a new line and the new owner is still running with no problems.

Makes sence...

jason he is a smart guy... I would listen... :D

i would run some sort of a flush kit in and out of it, take off the pressure line and the return line off the pump ad blow some air into it, but be sure not to blow out the seals and such.

Then i'd run about a cup or so of break clean through the lines, and then flush the pump.
What are you running for P/S fluid ?

i can't recall if those run P/S or ATF ?!

Nick

Sounds like you may be right. It had a bunch of bubbles in the fluid and it makes noises like when your bleeding brakes or a clutch or something.

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Also sounds like a good idea. Ive been running regular power steering fluid in it,. but I'm not sure what it is supposed to use either. I'll have to find out and get back with ya'll unless anybody else knows.

Well guys, i think I have this worked out now on some advice and help from one of my 8 bosses. Yes its atleast 8 maybe more!! We topped off the power steering fluid and started the truck up, left the cap off the P/S pump, slowly turned the wheel back and forth, holding it hard over each direction for a minute or so, and you could watch the air bubbles bleed out of the fluid, especially when the wheels were held to the right. Repeated this for a while, topping off the fluid when necessary and, atleast for the time being, my P/S works better than it ever has, the pump is not whining anymore, and its not spewing fluid out of the top of the cap when I shut it down now. I'll update if anything else changes. thanks to everyone for the advice. :c:

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UI'll also add I looked at all the lines and they all look good. I guess if it suck some more air in i'll take a closer look

I wish I saw this sooner or I would have suggested doing exactly what one of your 8 bosses suggested. I had the same issue. after a box change.:U:

Yeah, drove it today and all is well. P/S hasn't worked this good since I bought it 3 years ago.

i had the same problem with my 90'. if you use Lucas power steering fluid that will do the job, it is made to stop leaks. worked for me:U:

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lucas doesnt make a straight P/S fluid, just their stop leak. and lucas makes some good stuff...
and it doesnt hurt to run it straight; it says to use up to two bottles of the stuff and that's about the resevoir capacity of most systems; just glad you got it figured out :U: i had to wait like 3 days to get my p/s to work again the elbow rotted off on the return ontop of the steering box... had to get a specialy fitting that didnt even come with an o-ring if i recall correctly :humm: and never ask for a factory made return line... it's a piece of hose with two clamps. they want 20ish bucks for it and doesnt even come with the elbow i mentioned above. i love how manufacturers bully you into buying stupid stuff :bat: 16 bucks for a fitting and a 2" elbow, 2 bucks for a section of 3/8 hose and i saved myself 2 bucks :yeah: