Ok, so a few months back my power steering began being noisy, soon followed by the fluid aerating real bad and pushing out the cap. So, I checked the lines, flushed the system, and it still did it. So I bought a rebuilt pump and installed it yesterday, used a vacuum pump to draw the old fluid out and the new fluid in until it was all new fluid. Also, I put brand new lines on just in case. Well, I start it up and begin doing the lock to lock to get any remaining air out. I noticed that when going to the extreme locks(the last 1/8th of a turn) it would become extremely difficult to and made put the pump under tremendous load as it became quite noisy. I did the back and forth maybe 3 minutes and shut the truck off. Low and behold, I hear the spewing and sure enough it was bubbling out of the cap again. So, is it safe to say my steering box is bad?

 

My guess would be overfull or still has air. When you turn lock to lock do you have the front wheels up in the air? I've never had good luck getting air out of the system with the tires on the ground. Don't know why.

 

Yea, I had the wheels in the air and Im pretty certain I didnt overfill it. Im just at a loss, I really dont feel like pulling that steering gear off. I have a rebuild kit for it and I tried getting gear off for about 2 hours before I lost my temper and daylight...lol

 

2WD or 4WD?

 

Its a 2WD....I have been googling the heck out of this problem and I cant seem to find anyone saying their steering gear caused aeration of their fluid. Only thing I can think is to start over tomorrow bleeding it.

 

There is air getting in somewhere. Make sure all the hoses are nice and tight, then leave the cap off the pump over night. There might be a big air bubble trapped in there that might find its way out over night. Some of these systems have minds of their own. I wouldn't be too quick to condemn the box, but after many thousand of miles, they do fail. It is not that hard to remove, you just need a good pitman arm tool...Mark

 

I am going to try it all again tomorrow. Im having my doubts as to the box being the culprit after researching this for hours. Has anyone ever heard of the gearbox causing aeration especially since there are no visible leaks?

 

I guess I've been lucky, never has PS fail so I do not know if the steering gear can cause your problem.

 

On the suction side, where air would enter the system, you are not likely to see any leaks. Make sure all the hoses are nice and tight. I thought mine were tight after checking a couple of times, but on another try the low pressure hose turned slightly tighter and solved the problem...Mark

 

I had a similar situation a couple years back. Replaced everything but the gear box then noticed a popping sound while turning left and right to bleed the system. Find that the end cap on the gear box was actually popping around. You could see and feel it doing it. I think the box was bad and while it didn't leak it was letting air in. Replaced the box, no more problems.

 

Well, after spending 6 hours slowly bleeding all the air out of the system, I think it is good to go. Holy crap, Ive never dealt with such a PITA power steering system. Even though the lines were brand spanking new, I pulled the lines, checked the O-Rings, and replaced one because it had the tiniest evidence of being pinched. Then I torqued them as hard as I could. On the return line I put 4 hose clamps on for good measure...lol. Then I spent hours bleeding it little by little with the cap off. It aerated like 6 times because huge air pockets would come to the top and all the fluid would suddenly drop before I could add more. But, in the end, I finally got it. Although I think there may still be a little trapped in there because a little bit of aerated fluid floates to the top when I take it all the way to the lock. Not sure if that is normal though since I believe thats when pressure is at its highest. Its gonna sit for a couple weeks and if it aerates again when I get back from Ireland, then Ill know the box is jacked. Another thing I did notice was that even though the motion in the steering wheel was smooth and I couldnt feel anything, I could see the wheels shutter when going left to right. Thank you everyone for the replies.

 

Glad you did not have to replace the gear. I's amazing how long it takes to get the air out of some systems.

 

Glad it worked for you Mr. Zippy...


In a few of the threads here, you will find that some of our trucks, including my own, in order to bleed the power steering system, not only do you have to have the wheels off the ground, but you need to rev the engine RPM's up during the process. I have no idea as to why, but when I did my conversion to RR steering, and even when I replaced my defective PS pump this year, each and every time I did so, I had to rev the engine RPMS up over 1K to get the pump to bleed properly, intermittently shutting the truck off to refill the reservoir, all this while slowly turning lock to lock..

THe bubbles stayed there (light little ones) and then after driving it around for a day or so, they were gone. I just kept a container of PS fluid in the truck, and checked it from time to time, to make sure it was full..

BTW, Torquing the hoses as hard as you could won't do much with the metric fittings our trucks have in their PS PUmps / hose connections. It's a rubber o-ring on the end, and torquing it crazy does nothing, as the hose has an integral stop fitting, meaning it doesn't get any closer to the pump, the harder you turn the wrench. Usually what happens is the rubber oring pinches itself, and causes it to misalign in the housing, causing either a leak or air infiltration. It's a good idea to lubricate the Oring with PS fluid before assembly, this way, it slides itself into place, vs getting caught on the housing edge and tearing itself (which I've personally done myself)