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2001 Ram.  Over 400K miles.  I just replaced the seals in my vacuum pump.  Put it back together, and now it appears my power steering fluid is leaking.  The leak seems to be coming from the side that faces the front of the truck (where it mounts to the vacuum pump).  I didn't think power steering fluid came out of the drive shaft that fits into the vacuum pump?  Thoughts?

Edited January 13, 20205 yr by cs15dah

On 1/13/2020 at 7:00 AM, Mopar1973Man said:

Just remove the hoses from the back. 2 bolts and the pressure fitting and the reservoir will slide right off. Watch there is 2 square cut seals for the bolt holes. 

 

Finally getting around to tackling this job today...

 

Bought the $13.99 seal kit from Autozone shown above.  Used the large o-ring, 2 small square-cut rings for the bolt holes, square-cut ring for the pressure fitting hole, and o-ring on the actual pressure fitting. Still have 6 o-rings left...  Probably useless to anyone without the ones I’ve already used. But if anyone is rebuilding their pump and want these, shoot me a PM with your address and I’ll ship these out to you. 
 

While there, also got the two lines that run between pump/hydroboost and gear/hydroboost.  Also got 5 feet of 3/8 ID line for the return hoses.  And a gallon of power steering fluid, to adequately flush the old fluid out.  I'm thinking a gallon is way too much, but a gallon ($22) was nearly the same price as 3 separate quarts ($21).

 

I'm almost done.  I had to come to a stopping point so I can go do other tasks, so the reservoir is on and the old hoses loosely connected.  I'll finish this up on another day.

 

QUESTION FOR THE GROUP:  The old return lines have a crimp on hose clamp.  Between the hydroboost and the pump, there's a crimp connector on the hydroboost end of the hose.  And between the gear and the pump, there's a crimp connector on the gear end of the hose.  When using my new return lines, can I just use regular hose clamps?

 

 

Edited January 22, 20205 yr by cs15dah

2 hours ago, cs15dah said:

can I just use regular hose clamps?

I did, just don't over do it. It's a return, not a huge amount of pressure. Also buy an in line filter and put it in the return line. 

13 minutes ago, Dieselfuture said:

Also buy an in line filter and put it in the return line. 

 

Suggestions?  Something I can pick up from Autozone or Advance, or Amazon Prime?

https://www.google.com/search?q=ps351002&oq=ps351002&aqs=chrome..69i57.4749j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Filter on order. Will be here on Thursday. Thanks Dieselfuture!

1 hour ago, cs15dah said:

Filter on order. Will be here on Thursday. Thanks Dieselfuture!

No problem, @IBMobile gets the credit, followed his foot steps.

It's still a good idea to flush it once in a while even with the filter. Same for brake fluid and antifreeze, it all degrades over time. 

This might help, shows where to put the filter.

 

 

Got the new lines installed, with filter in place.

 

It appears I might still have a leak where the reservoir mounts to the pump.  I sprayed degreaser on it all, but I ran out of light, so will check to see if I can find the source of the leak on another day.

 

I might just replace the whole power steering pump/reservoir...  Might be easier than trying to track down this leak.  I tried to replace the seals as a way to avoid taking the vacuum pump down again.  That was a pain.  Not necessarily hard, just a pain.

They sell dye kits with yellow glasses and a UV flashlight for cheap. They can really help pinpoint leaks.

Took the Ram out for about a 15 mile drive.  I don't see any fluid underneath the power steering pump, or on the ground after having it parked for about 30 mins.  I wonder if the fluid I saw on the bottom of the power steering pump was just runoff from when I wiped fluid all over the tubes before sliding the hoses onto them??  Not sure, but the UV dye arrives tomorrow.  I think I'll drive it a bit longer to see what happens, and keep the dye on the shelf for a future need.