Power steering prob

[ndwhitaker13]

Since the middle of this winter at certain times when turning, the power steering seems to give up at certain points and stick, I can force it over this "bump" and I will get another half turn on the wheel and it will stick again, it will also do this when I let go of the wheel and let the car straighten out (almost hit a tree not paying attention). I thought that it was just the cold winter and the fluid wasnt viscous because it went away when the weather got warm cooincidently when I had my ball joints replaced. It has recently started again in the middle of a hot summer so I know it is not the cold. I don't believe it is the ball joints again because I grease them regularly they way they are supposed to be, and the tierod ends seem to be good too. Could this be the result of a bad power steering pump, something in the steering box, the pistons, or what? Any info would be great

 

[DasFrem]

One of two things, First try flushing out your power steering fluid and replacing it, the way I do this is jack the front of the truck up on jack stands so the tires are off the ground. Then what I do is use a pump to pump as much of the fluid out of the resivoir as possible fill it back up, run the truck and spin the wheel back and forth lock to lock a few times. Shut off the engine, pump out the fluid and repeat a couple of times, eventually all the fluid will have been replaced. then continue to trun the wheel back and forth lock to lock to work out any air bubbles. If this doens't solve the prolbem it may be a bad CV joint in the steering linkage. The CV joint looks like a little canister right before the steering rack on the steering column. I'm not sure where to get one of these because I bought one off a friend who had just finished a SAS.


Hope this helps!

 

[ndwhitaker13]

Thanks for that info. You wouldn't happen to know if a bad CV joint would be responsible for some "clunking" that is felt and heard on some bumps through the steering? Because if that would take care of both problems it would be great.

 

[Hartman]

I'm about to flush my PS fluid, but does anyone know about how much fluid I'll need? I picked up 2 quarts but I'm not sure that'll be enough.

 

[DasFrem]

2 quarts should be plenty.....oh yeah, and use ATF, not power steering fluid. Is it me or does everything on our trucks take ATF? My manual transmission takes ATF as does the transfercase.

 

[Hartman]

Just use regular ATF? I got some Valvoline SynPower power steering fluid, would that be OK to use?

 

[Billy177]

you should be allright