Power Steering Woes

[MrMoparCHP]

I posted this in the FABO forum just curious if anybody here has any ideas.

Power Steering blowing out vent

The other day I too my car for a drive and noticed power steering fluid everywhere.
I checked the cap and it was kind of loose, tightened it, same results.
Added a second gasket, no change.

Each time I add fluid to mid point on the filler neck and each time it blows it out till it is low and moaning.

It is a TRW in a 67 Barracuda w/273


Thanks,


Alan


Followed up with...

The other day I put a different pump in that I thought was from a car that had no issues. The plan is to send in the original for rebuild.
After I get the pump in I jack it up and with the engine running I turn the wheel lock to lock many times, first slow then increasing.
On the test drive it is jerky at points primarily at an idle.

I just need to keep the car mobile while the pump is at the rebuilder, I'm just trying to figure out if I have a bigger problem.

Steering gear is the factory unit and has never been worked on along with the valve assembly on the gear, car probably has 400k on it.


Alan

 

[Davea Lux]

Start by replacing both power steering hoses. Sometimes they seperate the inner liner of the hose and this can partially plug one or both of them up. If the inner liner of the hose is bad, it can also cause air ingestion into the fluid which will make the fluid foam. Fluid will also foam if there is a restriction in the high pressure hose. I would do the hoses before dealing with rebuilding the pump as I suspect hoses are your problem. If you still have the same problem after you change the hoses, take a box cutter and split the old hoses and see if there are any missing parts of the inner hose liners, sometime debris from failing hoses get stuck in the PA valve and plug it up, in which case the valve will have to be removed and cleaned out. Scribe the position of the PA valve before removing it.

Dave

 

[CBODY67]

I know the time-honored way to purge air from the system is the "turning wheel" method, as you mentioned. I'm not sure there should be any increasing speed of turning the wheel, though. A perhaps more "modern" way to do it and possibly the way it's done at the assembly plant is to pull a vacuum on the system via the pump neck. Might need to find an adapter to do that with plus a suitable vacuum pump. I think I'd use slow and steady turning, as if you were making a turn in town, possibly even bumping it against the stops lightly a few times.

"Pump catch" is when the pump can't keep up with the demands of turning the steering wheel. As if you're turning and the wheel temporarily "locks-up, then acted right again" as you're turning it.

The OTHER thing is that you need to be using "real" power steering fluid. Chrysler spec'd "Power Steering Fluid", as did GM (which works too), for its vehicles back then. The accepted practice was to use ATF to "top off" the system, but if you've got a leak and keep topping it off with ATF and the fluid is more red than waxy clear, time to flush and change to the correct fluid.

When I got my '67 Newport, the psf had a red tint to it. The pressure line was seeping fluid though it. I removed what I could from the reservoir, put the GM fluid in it, had to do that twice, and the seep stopped. ATF and PSF are two different fluids of similar viscosity, but different additive packages and such.d

In the middle 1970s, I bought the Chrysler psf from a Mopar Jobber (when they were around) and it had a very nice rolled-lip on the can. The GM psf looked the same, so as that's where I later worked, that's what I used after the Mopar Jobber closed. No problems after that.

Keep up updated on your progress.

CBODY67

 

[Yatzee]

I posted this in the FABO forum just curious if anybody here has any ideas.

Power Steering blowing out vent

The other day I too my car for a drive and noticed power steering fluid everywhere.
I checked the cap and it was kind of loose, tightened it, same results.
Added a second gasket, no change.

Each time I add fluid to mid point on the filler neck and each time it blows it out till it is low and moaning.

It is a TRW in a 67 Barracuda w/273


Thanks,


Alan


Followed up with...

The other day I put a different pump in that I thought was from a car that had no issues. The plan is to send in the original for rebuild.
After I get the pump in I jack it up and with the engine running I turn the wheel lock to lock many times, first slow then increasing.
On the test drive it is jerky at points primarily at an idle.

I just need to keep the car mobile while the pump is at the rebuilder, I'm just trying to figure out if I have a bigger problem.

Steering gear is the factory unit and has never been worked on along with the valve assembly on the gear, car probably has 400k on it.


Alan

This sounds like a classic symptom of uneven pressure in the high pressure feed line. Usual cause is the pressure relief valve at the pump. The pressure is held steady by a poppet backed by a spring which creates opposing force to maintain pressure. If the spring loses some of its tension or the poppet wears your pressure will vary. Rebuid the pump, flush the steering gear, fill with GM fluid and bleed the system thoroughly. Should be good to go.