arcc

I have a problem with my steering. This morning after the truck had warmed up I got in and the steering wheel would not turn. I was able to shift to reverse but still not turn. I tried restarting several times with the same result. I suspect either the steering wheel did not unlock when I used the key or the power steering pump has a problem.

I checked under the hood and there was some power steering fluid on the ground. It looked like the pump had overflowed. I don't know if this was from tring to turn the steering wheel earlier. Will a bad pump act like this?

I had to find another way to work. It will be Monday before I can get back to it. Just looking for ideas of what to check and try.

Thanks.

TOM R

where is the fluid from ? is the pump wet or did the steering box take a **** and dump all its fluid? i have seen boxes on trucks get so bad they just go all of a suddon and drop all the fluid out the bottom, also the seal where the steering colum hooks into the box could be leakin and it finaly got the fluid level to low in the pump, try adding fluid and see what happens

nickg

I'm not sure of the set up on a 2wd. but if it has a hydraboost brake system it is not uncommon for the acculimatior (sp?) to dump its pressure and overflow the powersteering resivor. this usually happens when its cold outside, sometimes you can get lucky if you switch the fluid to synthetic PS fluid, or worse case you have to replace the hydroboost. Mine has been bad for 16months, but it only does it if left outside in the cold, my truck is garaged, so this problem only shows up in the cold weather on a cold start, once its running brakes/steering functions normally

arcc

Tom,
I have not had a chance to look real close yet but it seemed to be coming out of the top of the filler neck. I will be able to look more closely Monday.

Nick,
I saw your post on another thread about the acculimator and was going to ask you about it. I have not been in the truck today to try anything. I think the brakes were hard to press at the same time. But I dont remember. Is the accumilator the blue can on the steering column by the brake master cylinder? Is this something that can be changed or will the whole unit need to be changed? I just want to replace the correct part the first time and not everything. Yes it was cold yesterday morning and the truck is outside and had not been started in two or three days. I did look at the fluid level this morning before leaving the house and the level looked to be high.

Thanks,
Tom
Nick

nickg

you should replace the hydroboost as an assy, the blue can is under extreme pressure and quite dangerous to take apart, by what you describe I'd replace the hydroboost assy, it can be done in about 15mins, just dont loosen any brake lines

arcc

I got a chance to check my problem more today. The Vacuum pump was working but the power steering and the power brakes did not work. I checked the power steering fluid and it was pretty dark. When I went to the parts store to check prices on parts I remembered in one thread someone talked about changing the fluid to synthetic. They did have the synthetic fluid but I thought I would try changing the fluid to flush it if nothing else first. I removed about 16 ounces of fluid from the resevoir and put clean fluid in.
After starting the truck the problem was still the same. While it was running I rocked the steering wheel side to side a little for about 5 minutes. The steering finally started to work. Also the brakes started working. I am going to keep removing some fluid and replacing it for a few days and see if it keeps working. In a week or so if it is still working I will try it with synthetic fluid. If I do this 3 or 4 times with synthetic fluid will that replace the standard fluid with synthetic and work as a mixture? Could it be that one of the pressure relief valves was sticking open with the dirty fluid causing my problem?

Thanks for your help Nick. If it acts up again I will probably change the booster like you suggested. If I leave the brake lines connected do I disconnect the booster from the back of the master cylinder then remove the booster with the bolts that go through the firewall? Then remove the booster and connect the new one to the bracket then to the firewall and bolt the master cylinder back to the booster.

Thanks all for your help.

rage_blue

If your haveing an issue with brakes boost and steering boost i'd bet on the pump being the problem

nickg

I would have said pump as well but his symptoms is that the hydroboost is forcing the fluid out of the resivoir, thus causing no power steering until he filled the powersteering fluid back up. (unless I read wrong).

arcc
so to recap, you had fluid on the ground and no steering or brakes till you filled the powersteering back up? and after you filled it back up everything worked as normal and there was no leaks Right?

arcc

Nick,

Today I had a chance to spend more time looking at the problem. Saturday after warming up for 10 or 15 minutes there was no boost on the brakes and the steering would not turn. There was some fluid on the ground and it looked like it came out of the filler neck. When I checked the fluid it was still full in the pump in fact it was filled too high. The level was normal last time I checked before Saturday.
Today the brakes and steering were still not working and the level was still high. The fluid was dark so I removed the fluid in the pump and replaced it will clean fluid. After replacing the fluid the brakes and steering would still not work but after trying to turn the steering wheel right and left for several minutes the steering and brakes started working. I am not sure if new fluid got it to working or something else happened.

I plan to watch it for a day or two before I try replacing anything. If it turns out to be the pump that will be the cheaper repair.

Thanks