hard steering

[buckdropper]

I am getting some hard spots when turning the wheel in my 96 xlt x. Is it the rack and when will it need to be replaced. Its not to bad now just hard to turn in spots. any help is greatly accepted...

 

[Doug]

get some lucas powersteering fluid, it got rid of the hard spot in my steering.

 

[Bill Kemp]

Doug took the words right out of my moulth. Take a turkey baseter and suck out as much of the old fluid as you can & refill w/Lucas. Do it again a day later untill the Lucas fluid is used up.
Lucas did prolong the rack change on my 96X for more than a year. Good stuff....

 

[chris c]

when encountering hard spots when steering it is usually an indication of resitance in the front steering assembly caused by worm or damaged parts.

my 91' x was experiencing the same symptoms. my front universal joints were in bad shape thus binding and causing more resistance than should. note that hard spots in the steering cause the pump to work harder thus heating the fluid more which can cause it boil out of the power steering pump and eventually cause the pump to fail...

i would check to see if there is any abnormal resistance in your front end prior to using the lucas as a save all....

for what it's worth, an interesting lucas additive test...

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm