power steering pump is leaking, steering is getting stiff. I heard about a rebuild kit thats 15 dollars or so instead of replacing the whole pump. You guys know anything about this?

 

Bueller?Bueller? Bueller?.....

 

My vacum pump was leaking oil so when I pulled it the steering pump came with it. Since it had 260k on it I just went ahead and replaced the steering pump with a unit from NAPA so I wouldnt have to go back in and mess with it later. I also was having steering issues but most if not all of it was due to the steering gear which was replaced as well with a Redhead unit at that time. The pump from napa was in the 60-70 range. I had not heard of the $15 rebuild kit. Also if you yank the steering pump you will need a new vacum pump seal where they mate. Cummins is supposed to have that seal fairly cheap. I opted for a vacum pump seal kit from Gould gear and electric aka fixinrams.com. Couldnt be happier at least so far.

 

Barry-
How did that job go? My Vac pump leaks oil and I got a Kit from Gould Grear to rebuild it plus a NAPA power steering pump at the same time. 168k steering is hard when cold.Has new steering box.

 

It went ok. The vac pump is a pita it is only held one with a couple bolts and the oil line and I think one other bracket that is attached to ps pump, just not much space. The gould video gives a pretty good description on how to go about it. I would suggest taking the vac and ps pump out as one unit instead of trying to take it apart where there is no space. Especially since you are replacing the ps pump. That way you can put everything together on the bench and not have to really worry about messing up the vac pump seal when reassembling. The vac pump maybe dress up the vanes inside it they come right out and check for broken drive tangs or a cracked housing. The ps pump was no issue though I did have trouble getting the old lines off and ended up cutting them leaving them as long as possible and they were just long enough to put back on. The other line with the fitting was kind of a pita to get back on but iirc it is not really hard to get back on you just cant see it when you go to reattach it so be carefull not to crossthread. Then bleed, bleed, bleed some more. I went lock to lock 50 times then drove some and still had to do a bit more all in all not a big deal. Certainly well worth the effort comparing the price of $120ish dollars with the over $1000 I was quoted from 2 different shops to do the job.

 

Thanks, I have the gould video, just need to watch it. Plus I have new vanes from Gould.