Power steering issues

[MoparMap]

I had the pleasure of tracking my car this past weekend, and while it performed admirably for its age and mileage, in the very last session on hairpins I found my steering had gotten very hard. My initial thought was just low fluid, but when checking the reservoir it was still nice and full. There wasn't any obvious noise like a squeal of a belt or a bad bearing. I figured it was still the pump though and swapped it out last night. When taking off the pressure fitting I noticed the spring and piston under it were bottomed out, so I figured I had found my problem. Put the new pump in, bled the system, fired it up and had the cooling fan working what appeared to be fine (2004, so hydraulic radiator fan). Didn't see any bubbles or anything and the fluid level stayed up. I could see the fluid was circulating in the reservoir as well. However, as I go to take off for work this morning I still didn't have any assist at low speeds. It seems sporadic where I might get a hint of assist from time to time, but more often than not I don't have much. Any ideas how to diagnose it next? Was thinking about pulling the line from the fan to the rack and starting it up briefly to see if there was any flow/pressure, but wasn't sure how much of a mess it would make. I hate to replace a rack only to find out it might be something as easy as a hose, but I'm not sure what to try to isolate the problem.

 

[Free2go]

Gently, yet firmly tap the pump with a rubber mallet.....

 

[MoparMap]

Well, the fan definitely works. Tried unplugging the coolant temp sender to put it into full speed and it winds up like a hurricane, so that's at least nice to know. Seems I do have power assist at higher engine rpm, just next to nothing down low. Can turn the wheel just fine sitting at a stop with the engine wound up to 2500, but can barely turn it at all at idle.

 

[Brass Monkey ACR E]

IF you happen to need the hydraulic cooling fan set up I have a NEW take off for a GEN3
$500 + shipping
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[ViperJohn]

Any updates on this issue?

 

[MoparMap]

Kinda. I was out all last week but my dad got another pump and tried that out. Seems better and has some assist at idle, but still doesn't feel right. It's much more tolerable, but I still think something is wrong. I have a hard time believing there is anything special about a Viper pump vs the Jeep cross reference it comes up with, and I have no intention of paying $300 for the Mopar brand one to find out. I know there is some kind of relief spring or something under the fitting. I'm wondering if maybe I could try swapping it out with another to see if that makes a difference, but it would be blind guessing at this point. I think for the time being I'm just going to let it right with the pump on it now that seems to mostly work.

As a side note, it kind of looked like there might be metal specks in the fluid when it was circulating with a light shining on it, so I sucked some out and put in in a small jar to let it settle for a few days. Poured some brand new fluid in a jar next to it. The specks are pretty hard to see, but I think there are just tiny bubbles. They seemed to mostly go away after a few days, though if you jostle the jar even a bit they become noticeable. You have to shake the new fluid a bit, but it has similar bubbles in it, so I don't think it's metal particles. Nothing really settled at the bottom as a powder, so I'm hoping I'm not pumping a bunch of abrasive through the system constantly. Might try pulling a return hose to flush the system at some point.

 

[MoparMap]

Well, as another update it seems like the problem has mostly resolved itself with some more time and miles. Must have had some trapped air in the rack or something as it works probably 90-95% like I remember it now. Still gets a little heavy when you drag the engine way down like when taking off from a stop while turning a corner, but it's not terrible. Every once in a while it might get a little hard to turn mid-corner when coasting through it, but that seems to have gotten much better lately. I tried bleeding it really good and cycling the wheel several times when I first installed the pump, but I guess maybe it just needed some time to break in.