Some parts seem difficult to find, other seem absolutely impossible. While rebuilding my power steering pump, I ran into an issue with some missing o-rings. It turns out my oil leak on the truck was actually a power steering leak that was covering the front engine seal with oil making it look like it was leaking. Judging by how much oil was on the back of the power steering pump pulley I would say the front seal had a serious leak and somewhere on the back of the reservoir was a major leak.
That pulley hid a big mess, I looked at the price of new power steering pumps and they ranged from $80 to $250. The rebuild kit was $15 not really much of a decision there, not to mention if the part has been sitting on the shelf for years it probably needs new o-rings.
The Kit I bought had 3 extra o-rings but none of them seemed to be right for what I was looking at. The kit includes one large round o-ring that goes around the pump itself and seals to the reservoir it has 2 medium round rings that go inside the pump and seal the pumping mechanism inside the housing. The other three are square cut smaller rings that seal the back of the pump to the back of the reservoir with bolts that penetrate the back of it. These three come in two heights. I used the taller ones since the shorter ones did not sit proud of the pump housing.
I had already pulled everything apart and been horrified by how much fine metal fragments had been attracted to the attached magnet. After cleaning everything I was about to put it back together when I notice some junk in the groove of the bearing where the oil should be able to flow and lubricate the shaft. (12 year old me found that last statement rude and giggled). I was just trying to get the junk out with a pick when I slipped and gouged the bearing. Glad the kit came with one. I guess I will replace it after all.
The bearing press made short work of pushing out the old one and pressing in the new one and started assembling the pump back in the body after installing the oil seal, hopefully this will fit slightly tighter than the last one. The alignment pins make it easy to get everything lined up and I started cleaning and slotting the 10 vanes back into the tiny slots. the 8th one did not want to go and after 5 minutes of fiddling with it using my fat sausage fingers I took it apart again.
I got out a couple of very small files and the “pick of damage” and went to work smoothing out the spot where the vane was sticking. I took it slow and worked it one stroke at a time to make sure I didn’t remove too much material and make the slot loose. It work satisfactorily and I put it all back in along with the new o-rings and using the handle of the BFH jr. I pushed down on the spring to be able to re-install the retaining ring. With the body o-ring and two rear rings in place i pushed the reservoir down onto the pump body. With a slight rotation I was able to line up the two mounting bolts and then I was down to the last part, this sensor doohickey that comes out of the back and attaches to the pressure hose.
It has 3 o-rings not the single one I had left in the kit, now i needed to look up parts, so I’m done for the day. Which is not a bad thing in this weather. After cleaning up and sitting at my computer I was getting stumped. I figured this thing was a pressure sensor, but everything I looked up for my truck looked completely different. Turns out it is a piece of technology that was so disliked that GM replaced it with an adapter pipe.
Amazon to the rescue, looked it up and found a bypass pipe for $25 which to be honest is a total ripoff for an empty piece of bent power steering line with an adapter. But it will be delivered tomorrow.
