BJ74 Hard Steering. Looking for some help in Calgary.

[Joe74]

This one is starting to get frustrating.... At the end of summer 2015 my power steering cut out. I figured I would most likely need a new PS pump so I got one from a buddy who happened to have a 13bt that he heard running but didn't test drive. That didn't fix the hard steering and with winter approaching I decided to put the cruiser away and address this issue this spring.

Here's what I've done in the last couple weeks with no little to no improvement...

-Replaced the steering box
-New tie rod ends and steering relay rod ends
-Checked the birfields (good)
-Removed the pressure hose and return lines and check for a blockage (none found)
-Checked the steering column and the u-joints on the intermediate shafts (good).

So I guess this is where I go full circle and look at the PS pump again seeing as I can't confirm 100% it was a good pump. Today I talked to a local power steering shop and They estimate 2 hours to bench test because they're not set up to test this style of pump. Does anyone know of a shop in Calgary that is equipt to test a B series PS pump? Or... Toyota also has a SST that can check the pressure coming out of the PS pump, does anyone have access to one that They'd like to rent? Perhaps there is a good pump floating around out there somewhere that someone would like to sell? Maybe there's something else that I'm missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I need to have my truck ready for some serious wheeling on the May Long weekend.

Thanks

 

[sadam_husain]

Its always ended up being the pump unable to supply enough pressure when I've had problems

you could disconnect all the tie rod ends and rotate all the component's to eliminate them as binding and causing the problem

 

[Behemoth60]

Does anyone know of a shop in Calgary

Did you try ProActive? They will be your best bet in Calgary for a commercial service shop that can help with this problem.

Did you put a new belt on? It's a really dumb and simple things to check but conceivably a belt contaminated with oil will not squeal, and won't give you full power. Is PS pump actually spinning at full speed with the belt when it's hard to steer.

 

[Joe74]

Did you try ProActive? They will be your best bet in Calgary for a commercial service shop that can help with this problem.

Did you put a new belt on? It's a really dumb and simple things to check but conceivably a belt contaminated with oil will not squeal, and won't give you full power. Is PS pump actually spinning at full speed with the belt when it's hard to steer.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll double check the belt under load tomorrow just to be sure. The Belt I have is less than a year old with under 1000KM on it and it's pretty tight but it's worth a try. I'll give PA a call for sure if I can't locate another pump somewhere soon. I'm hoping to be able to find one that I can temporarily install just for testing.

 

[61Mk+]

I confirm that Pro-Active is a damn good shop to rely on.

 

[Joe74]

I confirm that Pro-Active is a damn good shop to rely on.

Here's an update for anyone who may be interested...

I took my truck to Pro-Active and had Mike check out the power steering pump. Unfortunately he didn't have the proper fittings needed to measure output of the PS the pump in psi, but he did confirm that the pump is putting out more than enough pressure. Mike's opinion was to go back to the steering box/gear and test that.

I took my original steering box to hydra-steer here in Calgary and had Steve bench test it. Results... Steering box is good. WTH???

Here's where it gets weird... I went to move to truck into my garage today and guess what, now the PS seems to be working good. Nothing has changed since I drove it home from Pro-Active, all I did was park it. It's possible that it started working again on the way home and I just didn't notice but it definitely wasn't working when I left Pro-Active. I suppose there could have been an air lock in the system, or maybe some sort of blockage that has since passed but I think that's unlikely as I had filled, drained, and bled the system a few times before taking to Pro-active. Also, I confirmed the PS belt was properly tensioned before taking to Pro-Active.

I'll be using it as a DD for a few days and see if the problem returns but fingers are crossed.

Thanks to those that chimed in and offered help on this thread.

Joe