legacycentral bbs

Alright, I had been having problems with my power steering pump, so I replaced the bearing. It was missing half the balls and was grinding terribly. I put a new bearing in, and got everything back together without a problem. It seemed to be working fine, but the pump has been locking up entirely. There's belt dust in the engine bay because the belt slides when the pump won't turn. I put all new ATF fluid in the pump when I put it back together, so I know it's not low, and it doesn't leak. Any ideas as to where I should look for the problem? I don't understand why it's started to do this. I do have some bigger wheels (16x7's) so I understand this would put a little more stress on the pump, but it didn't do this when I first put my wheels on. Also, this was happening before the bearing was replaced (which I was hoping would fix the problem).

n2x4 wrote:It was missing half the balls and was grinding terribly.

there's your problem, if it's grinding, seizing, the housing is trashed, you don't need a bandaid, you need a new pump.

I second that.

The pump itself wasn't grinding, just the bearing behind the pulley was. I've already replaced that with a new NSK bearing. When I tore the pump apart, it looked fine.

After I posted I went back out to the garage and checked it all out. I tightened the belt up a little, checked the fluid, bled the PS again and on my way to school today I didn't have any problems. I'll keep my fingers crossed.