Rott-n-dawg

My father has a 2000 3500 that he claimed had a pwr steerting pump leaking.
I had to use the truck and got tired of filling the ps pump so I thought I would help him for letting me use the truck. Upon further inspection I found the leak was the Hydro boost and the pump was good. He bought the boost and had already bought the pump so I decided to change both.
After completing the task I found many conflicting procedures on the proper bleeding of steering and boost. So am confused about what bis the proper process.
The steering works from 12 oclock to 3 and 9 then gets hard every once in a while it will free up then become hard again.
Started bleeding off the return lines and when we did the hydro boost side I found that for the first two or three brake pedal pumps. would see air bubbles then 4th or 5th the fluid would start foaming with millions of micro bubbles.
Not sure were to go from here any info would be helpful.

maxwellp

From the FSM
Do not use ATF
Turn wheel all the way to the left
Fill reservoir / let sit 2 min
Raise front wheels
Slowly turn steering wheel lock to lock 20 times with engine off while checking fluid level.
Vehicles with long return lines or oil coolers turn wheel 40 times
Start the engine. Maintain fluid level at all times.
Lower the front wheels and let the engine idle for 2 mins.
Turn steering wheel in both directions and verify, if fluid is foamy let stand and repeat the procedure. Running with foamy fluid will damage pump.

Rott-n-dawg

Thank you maxwellp
I have got the system bleed and truck driving on the road.
Something I forgot about when doing this project for dad is that the truck was maufactured 03/00 the title says 2001 and the truck is a restored salvage that the builder put all suspension and rear axle out of a 2002 making the truck a four wheel disc brake.
So I'm going to have to do some homework to identify if the pump and booster are different part #'s for the different years.
Driving down the road everything is fine you have to slow way down to make a turn so that you can bring the rpm up and it will make the turn. My thought process at present is that disc brake require more pressure than drum brakes. If this is wrong let me know.

high bid

I installed a new hydraboost, bled it and went to check the brakes and the pedal went to the floor. The new booster had ps fluid coming from the weep hole. Did I just get a bad one?? Any help would be appreciated as I'm stuck here waiting for the replacement.

AlpineRAM

@ high bid:

You have 2 different problems-
A: The hydroboost unit should be tight, no visible leakage of PS fluid is acceptable
B: Your brake system has some problem- the pedal should never go to the floor, the pads and shoes should rest on the disks and drums long before you run out of travel on the pedal.
It might be that the output rod on your unit is too short or something like that, so that the brakes only get applied after using up a good portion of the pedal travel.


Does your truck act like you described with the engine off and on, or only if the engine is running?
Does the pedal stay on the floor with the engine running?

high bid

I appreciate the reply. The first replacement was bad out of the box, leaked out of the weep hole worse than the orig factory one. The second one, I forgot to xfer the output rod and spring assembly from the old hydraboost.All is good now...will just have to bleed out the brakes when I get home.

AlpineRAM

OK, missing output rod and spring makes it act as you described, glad you could fix it!
While bleeding the brakes- if you have a helper, please check that the rubber hoses don't balloon when the brakes are applied. This often leads to spongy brakes, and is a sign that the hoses will fail very soon.

scarecrowdiver

I just replaced the PS pump & Hydro Boost units in my 04 2500 5.9 Cummins 4x4. Bled brakes & PS. Now during test drive's steering gets stiff and pretty much don't work along with the brakes when I let off the throttle?


Also when I get on the throttle I now hear a loud whining at 2000 RPM?


Original issue was steering locked up and brakes failed while doing 80 down the I-10. Got it off and stopped safely.


Replaced the PS pump first, did a test & steering worked but still no brakes, did a brake fluid flush at all 4 wheels and still no luck, replaced Hydro boost, still no brakes and leaking PS fluid out weep hole at bottom of Hydro Boost, found that I didn't pull rod & spring from factory unit and install into the new one, but.. even if I had, the HB unit I Had would not have excepted the rod and spring. Just wasn't deep enough or the same as my factory HB unit. So went back to part store, looked at my core return and another 2 new ones. Ended up getting a new HB unit and installed (came with rod and spring inside already. (this is current unit in truck) reassembled all parts and hoses, bled steering system by turning wheels lock to lock (pressing brake peddle twice at each lock position repeatedly while watching reservoir and adding PS oil as needed, once bubbles and froth stopped showing I stopped that processes. And started bleeding the brakes. Both systems have no leaks and I'm at the current situation listed above.


any and all help is very much appreciated, Currently stuck in San Antonio and needing to get back to work in south Louisiana.

AlpineRAM

Hmm, that sounds like a lot of issues..

Let's start it in a simple way: Brakes don't work-

A: You can depress the pedal until the floor and not a lot of braking occurs
B: Brake pedal gets stiff a good way above the cab floor and insufficient braking.

Whining noise:
A: It whines at lower rpm when it's cold
B: it always starts the noise at the same rpm.
C: It gets louder when using the power steering regardless of rpm


Please do not drive on roads where you can hurt someone until this is sorted out.

For the first question:

Answer A: You have some problem like air in the brake system, a leak, defective master cylinder etc.

Answer B: The hydroboost unit does not assist in braking. (Same brake effort /result with engine running or stopped)

Second question:

Answer A: Wrong fluid, plugged sieve in reservoir, other reasons the pump does not get enough fluid
Answer B: Defective pump
Answer C: See answer A

HTH

high bid

Well the hydraboost was leaking again from the weep hole on the bottom. Had my lifetime warranty/receipt from the green autoparts store "Riley." $226 savings and swapped it out in about 2hr. The replacement unit didn't seem to have a weep hole. We'll see if this one last longer than 2yr. I'm really loosing my confidence in most of the retail auto parts houses as the parts just don't seem to last very long.
At 310k miles... I really can't complain and wouldn't hesitate in driving cross-country in such a fine ride