MY GF TL makes a whining noise when cranked. I figured replacing the pump would be the way to go. After purchasing the pump I did a bit of searching but I could not find any recommendations on how to remove the bolt behind the pulley. I did find something talking about replacing the O-Ring, I am going to inspect the O-ring on the replacement pump and see if it is good and see if that fixes the problem. Does anyone have any recommendation on how to get to the bolt behind the pulley holding the pump in place? Also how do you adjust tension on the power steering pump? Thanks for any help.

 

remove the bolt with a socket wrench and an extension. As for the tension there is a tension adjustment bolt for that.

 

New problem. I was successful in replacing the power steering pump. After a week of my GF driving her car with power steering and no weird noises. She bring it down to NYC where i start to drive the car and hear a weird noise coming from the front of the car automatically I think it is power steering. We stop and I turn the wheel all the way to the left to listen for the noise. I hear a noise all right it was the power steering pulley separating from the power steering pump. So now no power steering, I decide to take the car back to the neighborhood and park the car in the street. After looking for a spot for a few minutes we find one and I start steering, on my second maneuver I over steer the wheel all the way to the left now the bottom steering joint separates from the rack. I am so upset I believe maybe the junk yard that sold me the pump might have got the pump of the car it was on by removing the bolt that was holding the power steering pulley in place. The teeth on the power steering pump that hold the pulley in place is the only one that looks striped. Does this seem like a likely scenario? I am hoping on the steering joint, that the only problem is the bottom steering joint. If the teeth on the rack is done, I would probably have to get a whole other rack.

 

no pity for the person who installs junkyard parts without checking them first
Plus you dont crank the steering all the way- thats just hard on the system

Was the PS pump properly bled after install by turning back and forth with engine running and adding fluid as the air gets burped from the rack?
How a PS pump that YOU installed equates to other parts falling off- I am not sure of the logic there
Did you check all the bolts and related parts during the ps pump failure diagnosis?
Or just decide and go for it and this is the end result?

I for one, am headed under the car this weekend with a wrench and check every bolt I can find!!

 

the pump wouldnt have caused the rack to do what it did

 

We bled the system after we finished installing the PS pump. I am not stating the steering joint falling of the rack was caused by the pulley issue, that was just me being backed up. What I meant there was that the If the junkyard took of the pulley on the new rack and it was not tightened could this have caused the pulley to separate from the pump? I guess you are right I should have checked the pulley bolt, I just though that was not something that did not have to come off to remove the PSP as we did not have to do that to remove it. I did not check any bolts during diagnostic, but there are only four bolts related to the PSP and the one that seem like the likely problem was the bolt holding the Pulley in place. I did check the pump to see if it was still turning and it is so I don't think the pump seized up. I do however believe not checking tension could also be a factor as my friend that was assisting me swore up and down we did not have to readjust as we did not loosen it up to take the pump off. Unfortunately the spline on the steering valve sub assembly got stripped, the mechanic I dropped the car to said he will try to see if he can fix without taking out the whole rack. What would you say could have caused the pulley to fall of the PSP? I never knew turning the steering wheel all the was a not good but I guess I know better now. This is what I get for attempting a repairs without my trusty service manual. I still have the old PSP do you think changing the bearing could make it work right again?

 

I hate junk yards. Just bought another freaking pump and that ish is singing already. The steering linkage is back on without a new rack. Rethreading works. Well back to square one. Why me? Good news is this is my 100th post.

 

Be VERY careful not to over tighten the belt. Our pumps are VERY finicky.

<--------------- Has been thru 3 or 4 and rebuilt 1 (which is making noise already) which leads me to believe it has something to do with the rack now