Hi all,

Well I mentioned in my thread about injectors that it was finally time to re seal my vac pump because it had started really leaking. Seems I was wrong about the source of these new, and very sudden large puddles. Its PS fluid, and I can't figure out why, or where its coming from. Heres whats happened lately. Flushed PS fluid a couple months ago. Next, flushed fluid again to replace hydrobooster. At this point I was leaving drips, not puddles, from all the residual PS fluid all over the place from the two flushes. Next, I washed the underside of the truck to make sure I wasn't having major oil leaks. I went about a week seeing only a drip or two and sometimes nothing on the ground. All of a sudden I have large, very wet spots on the ground after sitting just a few hours. I thought it was the vac pump finally letting loose, but today I noticed that the fluid looked really light in color for engine oil. I got under to look and everything is a mess of course, but I can tell it is definitely my nice clean ps fluid, mixed with a little oil. The strangest thing is, everything is SOAKED, and even having not run the truck since yesterday afternoon, its still dripping every few minutes! There is literally fluid laying on the asphalt that hasn't soaked in yet, thats how fast its still leaking. Other weird thing is, the reservoir isn't really low  Where could this fluid be coming from? It definitely does not seem to be coming from any of the lines on the back of the PS pump. However, there are drips hanging off the bottom seam of the PS pump, it looks wet in between the PS pump and vac pump, but that could be oil. There is also PS fluid all over the top of the gear box which wasn't leaking much, if at all before. I do have a new return line from the gear box to the PS pump though, but even if that new line were loose(no i didnt check yet)  that couldn't be the cause, because how would fluid get up and back to the bottom of the PS pump? Could the PS pump be leaking from where the shaft that drives it comes out? Is it re sealable or does it need to be replaced? I'm planning to go to the carwash later and spray it off and then watch for leaks, but any thoughts in the meantime? I have my vac pump reseal kit on the way and Id like to tackle that next weekend. Just trying to figure out if i should be ordering a new PS pump for the same time....

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

If the vehicle is used in a reasonable manner IE: daily driver or towing,  I'd use the 8.8.  If it is subjected to heavy duty use IE: mostly off road driving or snow plowing, I'd use the 10.9.  If you just want the added insurance go with the 10.9.    

When you set the cruise on fly by wire the pedal want stay down because it is not connected to a solenoid pulling on the throttle. Another way is if you can monitor you apps sensor it will show 0%  while cruising with it set. 

Hey guys, 

What a day! Finally got all power steering components back together today after a giant PITA! Everything was going well until I tried to put the pitman arm shaft nut back on. I started threading the nut on (by hand and then a rachet) to try push the pitman arm on without the lock washer by accident, caught myself and tried to take the nut back off and it got super tight and didnt wanna move. Got the impact and spun it off and the threads on the shaft and in the nut were destroyed.  I don't know what happened, it definitely was not cross threaded. Anyway then I called everyone I could think of just looking for a stock nut(because my special one for the steering brace was now ruined). Finally found one at a dodge dealer an hour away that had one so went on a road trip to go get it. Btw my local dodge dealer told me they couldn't get it till Wednesday!! Then had to go and swap out the steering box for another at autozone. Got back and everything back together ok just without my steering brace, no big deal. Then started bleeding the air, lock to lock with truck off. Tons of bubbles. Remember the ENTIRE system was empty at this point. Once it stopped bubbling we turned the truck on and did more of the same plus braking and added some more fluid as it went down. Once it seemed good we went for a drive. Good news, I don't even notice a difference without that steering brace, bad new the steering and brakes were horrible. Radom loss of power steering at idle rpms, little boost in the brakes until the pedal hit a certain point then it would brake all at once. Weird feeling in the pedal, slight sticking and sometimes slow to return, steering wheel moving a little on its own when brake pedal pushed. I'm hoping its all just air working its way out or something, but it really has me worried that the valve in this pump is hanging up again like the last one. I drove it around for a little while and did lots of braking and turning in an empty parking lot to try and work it out. Finally started to get a little better I think. We'll see more tomorrow and this week. Its just really odd how it can be acting up at low rpms, blip the throttle and its good, and sometimes stays good even when rpms come back down, sometimes it doesnt. On the way home it finally seemed better but well see tomorrow. Going to hopefully get the new steering linkage on tomorrow. It acts very similar to how it did before when the valve was stuck in there. Only its doing this right from the get go and its not consistent like that was.

Typically. I will get a system started and drive for short amount of time like 1/4 mile or less. Then return home and park it. Let it stand then top off with fluid after it stood for good length of time. This allow the foaming to quit. If the fluid is foamy don't drive it for long periods it can cause damage.

Yikes that might not good.....we drove between 10 and 20 miles last night i think....when we got back the fluid wasn't really foamy though i dont think....it might have had little bubbles in the fluid because it went from clear to cloudyish, but it wasn't like foam sitting on top of the fluid at all. Hopefully I didn't hurt anything already....anyway its been parked overnight now so I'll check the fluid this morning before driving it again. Waiting on rain to stomp before getting back go work....

That why the performance was bad. Any air is compressible so every time you requested power steering or brakes the air compressed more than work provided by the hydraulics. So start this process over again check the fluid make sure its full before starting. Run it short time and check for foamy fluid if so shut down and wait 15-30 minutes top off and start again till it stops foaming.

Thanks Mike! We'll give that a try. Do you think I could have done any damage already?

 

Most likely not. It sure harsh on any kind of fluid system to bounce between fluid to air. It it weird way creates a hammering force and jarring. Kind of similar to water hammer but very random. So you can imagine the pressure relief valve opening and closing attempting to keep pressures stable and air compressing.

Yes that makes sense. Thanks as always for the info. Hopefully we can get it sorted out soon and have no more issues.