Need P/S Vacuum Bleeding Direction

Luxobarge

Registered
I have a problem with my power steering. The power steering has been giving symptoms of a bad pump (whining/hard to turn while moving slow) occasionally over the last 2 weeks, until today...something much worse happened. Today in a parking lot my wheel LOCKED up and i could not turn the car at all, did this twice, then everything went back to normal. This is very unsafe if it happens again.

I loosened the belt, there is a small front/back play of the pulley but it turns very smoothly with no noise :confused: From doing some searching i found a few other people mentioned that thier power steering pump pulley had the same amount of play so i am not that sure as to if thats a big deal or not.


I have ran two bottles of lucas p/s additive to the system over the last two weeks and removed the cap 3-4 times turned wheels back and forth to remove the air and no matter what i do, a few days later bubbles appear back in the fluid. I would like to vacuum bleed the p/s fluid ( i have a hand vacuum pump) so i would like to know the procedure for doing this if anyone has it, i greatly appreciate it.

I am really at a loss as why all of a sudden the wheel would LOCK up for a good 25 feet then "BREAK FREE", usually when a power steering pump goes bad its just very hard to turn at low speeds or worst case scenario the pump siezes and throws the belt.

There is a sensor for highway speeds ( it was unplugged when i got the car) but once again, i cant imagine any engineer designing a system that upon failure would lock up to a point which would almost definitely result in death or a serious accident.

If anyone has any other ideas or insight i would also greatly appreciate it.
 
Um, I have recently had a pump failure also. The only reason that I know of that it would freeze up is because a ball or roller jams in the bearing. At the same time though the belt would have to slip. I wouldnt think it would do it quietly. I have used Lucas also, but it is sooo thick. If I were you, I would drain it and reservice it with Mercon 5. For now, I would leave the electrical connection unplugged. That will give you 100% power at all speeds. It will disable the variable orfice in the pump.
 
I'm goning to look at mine later today, It's 30 deg out right now. I don't know,but could you disconnect it at the cooler? Seems like it would be a low point. If it can be disconnected I would pump out what I could the open it up to get as much out as possible.

As for the bubbles I had my T-birds replaced and had air in the system for couple weeks. Mostly little bubbles but, I remember one big one working is way out on a corner doing about 50, woke me up quick!

Item Part Number Description
1 — Power Steering Pump Reservoir
2 — Power Steering Reservoir Pump Hose
3 — Power Steering Pump
4 — Steering Column
5 — Power Steering Gear
6 — Power Steering Return Hose
7 — Power Steering Fluid Cooler
 
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You can use a turkey baster to get the fluid out, I would refill with merconV and rotate the wheel lock to lock several times, redrain again, refill, rotate, drain for the final time and refill and rotate wheel adleast 4-5 times tomget air out, recheck fluid top off and button up. It would be a plus if you could get the wheels offf the ground so as to eases the tension on the steering gear thru all the gyrations.
 
Thanks everyone i will give a try to changing out the fluid first and i'll disconnect that plug again. I read somewhere that the manual has a procedure for bleeding out the air via use of a vacuum pump. If that doesnt fix it i guess i'll have to put a pump or rack in it after the holidays, i have a big b&m trans cooler and autometer temp guage that might get put to good use while im already in there. Thanks for the diagram.

Take care and have a good holiday.
 
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