Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

A note to anyone who shoots me a friend request, I accept them all, or at least try to, I am using Chrome as my browser and for some reason I am unable to accept friends, take that as you will, LOL, I will try to fix this issue

[Gregski]

wanna share a Lesson Learned about the Power Steering Pump, I don't know why but before I went on this journey I thought the steering pump was one magical unit a black box that made steering easier, the steering shaft was the input and some rods connected to the wheels acted as the output, and whalla you got power steering

Well, the power steering pump is only half of the equation is what I learned, the other half is the steering box in our case or a steering rack in the rack and pinion applications

Furthermore the steering pump is similar to the AC system as it also has a low pressure and high pressure hoses, sure now that makes sense, but before I took it all apart I didn't even conceptualize that, so

Steering Pump <=> Hoses <=> Steering Box

well you all probably knew that but I just wanted to share, maybe to get some of you thinking about it, if you hadn't already

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Gregski

wanna share a Lesson Learned about the Power Steering Pump, I don't know why but before I went on this journey I thought the steering pump was one magical unit a black box that made steering easier, the steering shaft was the input and some rods connected to the wheels acted as the output, and whalla you got power steering

Well, the power steering pump is only half of the equation is what I learned, the other half is the steering box in our case or a steering rack in the rack and pinion applications

Furthermore the steering pump is similar to the AC system as it also has a low pressure and high pressure hoses, sure now that makes sense, but before I took it all apart I didn't even conceptualize that

well you all probably knew that but I just wanted to share, maybe to get some of you thinking about it, if you hadn't already

The high pressure and low pressure hose can be determined as the high pressure hose has the clamped fittings where the low pressure hose can use hose clamps.

The low pressure hose is more of a return line that feeds back into the reservoir. When you turn the wheel the high pressure hose is in use to allow the easy movement of the steering box to pitman arm to steering arm to tie rods.

When you release off the turn it uses the return line to feed fluid back to the reservoir.

[Gregski]

picked up some parts last night and took today off to start turning some wrenches

so lets compare the old and new high pressure hoses

they look a bit different but I hope the new one will fit right

[Gregski]

as you saw above you buy a pre manufactured (and I use that term loosely) high pressure hose, but you buy the low pressure hose, aka the return line by the foot, just make sure the AutoZoner hands you the right type of hose, I'm just sayin'

I bought a 2 foot long section to allow room for error

[Gregski]

so far so good... well till I picked up the Remanufactured (pronounced: remangled) power steering pump from O'Reilly's (pronounced: Oh really, as in oh really, you want me to put that on my truck)

I hate to sound so negative, but this thing is garbage, look at the return line 90* elbow fitting thing, compare my old one with a nice sweeping curve to the sharp and twisted and deformed new one

I believe if you have to write "Quality" on your box three times in different languages, well maybe your part ain't all that quality

[Gregski]

but wait it gest worse, you know me and stickers right, so I go to peal off the REMANUFACTURED sticker off the back of this thing, and I pull a foot of paint off with it

heck this paint job makes mine look like Michelangelos'

[Gregski]

ok, third and final straw that broke the camel's back as I was still trying to make it work, by mounting on all the brackets, was this stupid key that would not fit in the groove to put the pulley back on

now, come on Greg just grind it flat a bit and it will slide right in, don't tell me I didn't consider that till I slid it in my pulley and it fit snug there, so if I were to grind it down it would wiggle in the pulley while fitting in the shaft, not gonna do it

[Gregski]

The Greg is off to NAPA for a new power steering pump... be right back

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Gregski

The Greg is off to NAPA for a new power steering pump... be right back

uh oh... Reman was crap.

[enaberif]

**double post**

[greg64]

That's sad. What good is a reman no one can really use? Good luck, Gregski.

[rusty76]

Always fun.

[Gregski]

decided to take the steering gear box off, but cant get the pitman arm off the knuckle, can I use a pickle fork on it?

[Titomars]

That is just one of the many reasons I do NOT buy hard parts from O'Reilly's.

[Titomars]

Originally Posted by Gregski

decided to take the steering gear box off, but cant get the pitman arm off the knuckle, can I use a pickle fork on it?

I personally don't use pickle forks they tend to do more damage than help.
I remove my Pittman arms with a good 2 or 3 lb sledge hammer. A couple of good strikes will release it once the nut is off. Like tie rods ends the Pittman arm to shaft is a taper fit.

[Gregski]

ok, well lets get us up to speed on the damage that The Greg has done today, since NAPA had the same crudy pump as Oh Reallys, (they said it's made by BBB Enterprises, that don't sound shady at all) I ordered one from CarQuest (pronounced expensive)

so as I waited for the new(er) pump to arrive I decided to stay busy

what to do, what to do?

I know off with the inner fender

[Gregski]

those of you who have been with me and Rusty since day uno, know that The Greg likes his inner fenders not black but the color of the vehicle, so this one is going to get treated to a coat of green on it's back and some undercoating on it's belly, but first he'll need a bath, stay tuned

oh by the way, stripped/broken bolt count = 0

[Gregski]

now where were we, oh yes, trying to remove the steering gear box, so since The Greg is a one clown circus he has to improvise so he used his boy scout knot tying skills and fabed this Russian crane hoist

you twist the smaller 2x4 on top and it lifts the part you are trying to lift, genius I tell you

[Gregski]

with the steering box literally hanging in the balance I still could not get that darn pitman arm off, yes I tried using gentle persuasion aka my 3 lbs sledge, no go, tried PB Blaster, wedged and broke a large screw driver in there too

I felt as if it was me vs 40 years of stick-to-it-a-vness

[greg64]

Wow, you got all those bolts out without breaking any? I'm impressed.

Now, I have something else for you to do. In the picture that shows the master cylinder well, I can see some wires that have blue butt-splices. Those things suck for long term connection quality, but they are quick to put on. I'd take advantage of the great access you have to those wires right now to fix those.

In my experience, with automotive wiring, there's no substitute for soldered connections with heat shrink tubing over the joint. They last forever. Nothing is more frustrating than unreliable wiring.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by greg64

...In the picture that shows the master cylinder well, I can see some wires that have blue butt-splices... I'd take advantage of the great access you have to those wires right now to fix those.

You are making it very difficult to procrastinate on those! LOL

[greg64]

Originally Posted by Gregski

You are making it very difficult to procrastinate on those! LOL

That's my job!

[Gregski]

so off to AZ, to pick up some "specialty" tools

got a fork and a pitman arm puller, the actual pitman arm proved to be useless, LOL

the fork on the other hand got her done!

[greg64]

Wait a minute on the steering box. It's far easier to release the tapered joint at the other end of the pitman arm with a pickle fork. Unless, of course, you're looking to replace the pitman arm.

The way to get the pitman arm off is with a puller. You apply a fair bit of tension with the puller, and the tap the pitman arm from the side with a hammer. The puller alone won't do it, at least in my experience.