Woo Hoo! my PS rack popped it's top!

[berettaboi]

sounded like a bottle of champagne popping open! then the lack of power assisted steering... i thought it was worse and a tie rod broke or something! really glad i can still tone up my arms with the 'armstrong steering'!

i'll get a better look at it in the morning, but looks like a cap on the passenger side end of the rack has popped most of the way out... hoping i might be able to reseal and flush it out maybe... i'll try that before replacing the thing... dont have money for that really right now.

i have had hard steering, mainly in the winter, and a fresh slight leak just started a few days ago, i hadn't got to fully looking at it yet, since it as just up on the jack stands for a full brake job last week! figured it was the cooling loop that was rotting out...

[ifixalot]

I had this happen, you won't be able to reseal it unless you weld it.
I made a heavy plug to fit and mig welded it in.
That area gets rusty.

[berettaboi]

yes, that's the plan for tomorrow. it looks fairly clean on mine actually. i plan to use JB weld on the inside seam likely, and then a few tack welds with my mig on the outside edge.

[berettaboi]

well, got to it today... so this is the passenger side of the rack... there is a cap that popped partially out, and blew all the power steering fluid out with it... (surprisingly the power steering pump is very quiet when there is no fluid going through it! on the downside, i may need a new one after driving it dry a few days...)

i tried quickly (and without damaging the 'sealing' surfaces) to pull the cap right out, and take a look inside, and add 'coldweld' inside then hammer the cap back in... but it fought. so i just hammered it back in, and then a bunch of tack welds. until i ran out of wire! (please excuse my globby welds!, i should have turned down the wire feed a bit... then i might have had enough to finish...)

so i finished it up as best i could, then painted it up quick. added fluid and started it up. adding fluid while it's spitting back at me... and then about full, and turning the wheel to work it through, and there is some spots that didn't seal up on the cap... seeping out very slightly. so i put the layer of coldweld on the outside... wait for that to dry and start it up again in the morning and hope the pump quiets down a bit... we'll see

[berettaboi]

also when i shut the engine off after filling it up, it overflowed quite a bit... quite frothy currently, so when i start it up tomorrow, i'm sure i'll deal with more of the same.

[Money pit Beretta]

Did you bleed the system?

[berettaboi]

how do you bleed the system? i suppose it might be ideal to look that up...

edit: yeah just as i thought... but i did it with the engine running... makes sense to start lock to lock without it running first

[3X00-Modified]

yes, anytime you run a PS system you should fill the reservoir and go lock to lock MULTIPLE times to get the air out... Once the pump runs it bubbles the fluid as you can see and very badly... its also not good for the pump but since its been run dry for a few days then I doubt you'll hurt it anymore.

[Money pit Beretta]

So how is it doing now?

[berettaboi]

it's better than it's ever been! lol sadly, almost true... only a few grumbles at low-speed driveway cranking. but the pump is quiet! i'm happy. the last owner may have put too much Lucas (thicker) in there before he replaced the high pressure line... due to a leak likely. and the car was always hard to steer all winter (not quite as bad as non power steering on a power steering rack...), and at times on and off until the weather got above 10 degrees C.

so i ran out of welding wire after my excessive glob tacks... and then ran out of coldweld also... missed one spot right on the bottom, so got some fresh stuff today, (and after driving the car again today... not a huge leak, but a drip every 5 seconds or so when running). it's now drying after another coldweld bout... hoping for no no more leaky, but will be fine with lite seepage... i'll replace the rack if and when i do an engine swap (with 5 spd! that's sitting in the garage waiting...).

[Money pit Beretta]

That is good news then. Really it kind of floors me that this fix worked. I thought there would be too much pressure.

[berettaboi]

well, this is so far... i did get all the way around with my welder, except for a couple small spots. highest amp setting on my 110 volt mig. when running it was just slightly seeping from 2 spots before i used coldweld to seal the whole cap over.

i'm surprised my pump isnt still crying just a little bit!

[Money pit Beretta]

Ok that sounds better. I have to tell you I'm in love with your pump. Looks to be a tough one. Mine was burnt just after it was put on because the shop didn't bleed it. Damn thing makes alot of noise when it's cold out.
You must have bled it in time before it burnt up. Bubbles are a bad thing for PS pumps. They will cavitate.

[3X00-Modified]

I blew a return line off of my 95 once in RI and drove 40min to CT with an empty PS tank and fixed the issue then drove it to work and never changed the pump after that and drove it for at least another 2 years that way... it's actually still the one that's in that car sitting in my driveway, the car died before it did...lol

[berettaboi]

pretty resilient!