I woke up and took off (in my 98 24V),...no power steering....after a little ways it started working somewhat.
Came back home...puddle of fluid on the driveway...Crap. No wonder.

I got underneath the **** thing with a flashlite...I cannot for the life of me see where it is leaking (or had leaked out..at this point). Can it be that hard?? Or am I just too blind.

Do I actually have to fill it and try to watch it leak out to find it??? It is so hard to get to...I was just thinking something like a hose has a crack or something...But thought I better ask on the chatboard first in case I get some easy pointers. I'm getting old enough to where energy is no longer nearly as abundant as it used to be.

If anybody has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it, don't want to tear the wrong thing apart,..

thanks,
Puke

 

Get a few cans of brake cleaner, clean it up, fill it up, and see where it's coming from. I actually have the same problem, takes a week or two to make it groan and grumble though. Could be anything really.

 

There is a large 'O' ring that seals the pump housing that could be the culpret. Look at the pump its self too for dripping oil.

There is a seal kit for the pump you can get at auto parts store. Basicaly a large diameter 'O' ring, like 5 or 6 inches dia.

And Stopleak oil works good too. It will swell up the seals. Fill it up




.


.

 

The housing itself seemed fairly clean. ..The best I could tell,...the fluid was from above it somewhere,...that had me thinking maybe a hose or connection to the fluid reserviour...it's hard to see there.

After thanksgiving I think I'll get a mirror, big light, and fillerup and run it and get my wife to turn the steering wheel and see if I don't get fluid splattering in my eyes or something.

 

Thats were the big O ring is. It seals the fluid reserviour surrounding the pump itself.
Dont know if thats where your leak is , but if it's seeping out of the reservior lip at the back of the pump thats probably it. Stop leak might fix it. Could be the hose to


.

 

Well documented that if you have not replaced your PS fluid and its cold out, it will puke out of the PS resivor.typically there is lots of whinning/noise and no power steering/or brakes, and after fluid has been replaced and truck is warm every thing seems fine until the truck is cold soaked again, and the symptoms repeat themselves again usually replacing the fluid with synthetic PS fluid will cure the problem, if it still occurs your Hydroboost assy is faulty and will need to be replaced

 

How are the brakes related? I thought that was a total separate system.
My older dodge (93) has had the winter power steering problem on and off for years, but it never affected the brakes, and never leaked any fluid out. I finally found a fluid that worked good in that one in the winter. But this one has always been fine (up to now).

 

Your 98.5 should have hydroboost system, PS pump provides pressure for both steering and the brakes

your 93 had vacuum brakes

suck the old fluid out and replace it and all should be golden

here is the simple pump I used, it will empty the resivoir easily

 

I've got a pump like that somewhere. Hope I can find it.

So is that synthetic oil I see in the background?

I was wondering if I should replace the oil with marine grade....????That way any moisture that gets into the oil will not be able to collect at the bottom and turn into ice...but would have to emulsify instead?

Just a thought. I replace my boat lower oil every year, b ut have never changed the power steering fluid in it (but I still assume there is an official marine grade that emulsifies any moisture to keep away from damage caused by freezing water droplets.

 

Find the leak and fix the problem.
Mine was leaking from the pittman shaft seal. $10 and 1 hour the leak was fixed.

 

My truck did almost the exact same thing last winter.....but only when it was cold. I could never find a leak and someone suggested I flush the power steering fluid since I had 142k miles on it. I flushed it and have not had a problem since (have even had it in -42F).

Yes, that's AMSOIL full synthetic. When you replace the fluid, keep in mind there is fluid in all the power steering and hydroboost lines, as well as in the steering gear box, the hydrobooster, and in the powersteering pump. Just sucking out what you can in the power steering pump reservoir will only get some of the fluid in the system.

Two ways to do this, clean way...and dirty way:

Clean way:
Draw out what fluid you can from the reservoir on the power steering pump, fill up with fresh full synthetic, replace the power steering pump reservoir cap, run until warm while turning the steering wheel back and forth as well as pumping the brakes. Repeat 8-10 times. Each time you'll do it, you'll get more of the old fluid out and more of the new fluid into the system. Obviously you can't get it all out this way since there will always be some old fluid left in mixture. I'd guess this gets 75-80% of the old fluid out of the system and doesn't make much of a mess if you are careful removing the old fluid.

Dirty way:Remove the low pressure return line from the power steering pump (this line comes from the steering box and goes to a metal pipe on the bottom of the power steering reservoir). This hose will be your drain so attach another hose as necessary to route the old fluid to an appropriate container (this hose will be under some pressure, so plan accordingly or you'll be mopping up fluid off your garage ceiling). I bought a 3' section of clear rubber tubing that clamped over the return line hose so I could see when I had flushed out all the old fluid.

Next, take another 3'-4' section of hose (either 3/8" ID or 1/2" ID fuel line or plastic tubing, I don't recall which I used) and connect one end to the metal hose on the bottom of the power steering reservoir. Mount the other end of the hose to a reservoir of some type where you can draw new power steering fluid from. I re-used a clean plastic 1 gallon milk jug. I drilled a hole in the cap, installed a brass fitting, then attached my hose to the brass fitting. I then cut off the bottom of the milk jug which makes a nice 1 gallon reservoir when the cap is fitted securely. Fill the milk jug with a gallon of fresh power steering fluid, be sure your drain hose is secured in a container that will hold a gallon of fluid. Make sure your power steering reservoir cap is installed on the power steering pump, start the truck, let the power steering pump draw from the fresh fluid reservoir and discard the old fluid into your holding container.

While flushing, have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth with the engine running to exercise the gear box. Also have them pump the brakes to exercise the hydrobooster.

In the end, you'll get 90-95% of the old fluid out of the system. When you are finished, put the power steering hoses back the way you found them, top off the power steering pump reservoir with fresh fluid and you are good to go.

If you can help it, DON'T run the power steering pump dry. Turn off the truck before your fresh fluid reservoir is completly empty. It won't kill your power steering pump, but it's not good for it.

Hope this helps. The dealerships charge $350 for this service when using full synthetic power steering fluid. I did it myself in an hour for less than $50. I used Redline synthetic power steering fluid:

http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=79&pcid=27

If you don't know who your local dealer is for Redline products, you can buy them from www.jegs.com online.

--Sk