Power steering flush? (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Mar 16, 2005
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Is there any way to flush the power steering fluid out on a '95 LC....the dealer offers this as a service, but I think they have some special machine for this....

Chris '75 FJ40

This is something my brother wants to do on his LC....
 
Disconnect the return hose from the PS well and stick the end in a bottle. Run the engine and replace fluid in the PS well as it's level drops. When the fluid filling your bottle clears, you have flushed out the old fluid and it's time to turn off the engine, reconnect the return hose and top off the PS fluid level. After all is reconnected and topped off, run the engine with the cap of the PS well off. Look in the PS well for bubbles as a friend turns the steering lock to lock. When no more bubbles appear, you should be finished.

I did this PS flushing several times in an effort to get my PS more quiet because it was groaning. It didn't work for me and I finally had to remove the well and scrub out the parts manually. That worked. Flushing is only for mild problems,


Kalawang
 
It's not very easy to see if there are bubbles in the PS reservoir. The fluid is very turbulent while the motor is running.
 
I take the top of a Windex or similar type spray bottle place it in the resorvoir and spray into another container. I can remove approx. 7 oz. Does'nt get it all but you can refill run your LC and do it again. Once it's clean you can replace the 7oz every other oil change and it always stays fresh. takes about 3 minutes.
 
thanks everyone
 
Safado said:
and why do you lock the CDL?

because of the action of the center differential if you do not lock the CDL and any one wheel is off the ground the parking "gear" will not stop the truck

if you do the other steps, set parking brake, block the rear wheels and lift on a flat surface you will still be OK, but it just takes a few seconds to lock the CDL having the redundancy of the parking pawl keep the 80 in place is a good thing,

had a good chance for a test of this tonight, last week end I removed the drivesahft to lube it and to diagnose a vibration (turned out to be tires out of ballance) I have not put the front shaft back in yet, been driving this week with the CDL locked.

the test: came into my driveway wicth has a slope in the middle, put in it in park, unlocked the CDL and let off the brake, the truck rolled down the hill in park,

interestingly enough got a chance to feel the Viscous coupler in action, on the steep part of the hill it kept the speed down, only letting it move at a set rate. when I got to the bottom and the driveway leveled off the speed went down the the drag of the VC tapered off still allowing the cruiser to creep along like the VC was not there. never experienced humping must take higher RPM.

so the VC steps up its force when the diffrence in RPM front to rear increases, and has almost no force at low RPM's.
 
OK, just wondered why the TRIPPLE redundancy :flipoff2:


2cruisers said:
I take the top of a Windex or similar type spray bottle place it in the resorvoir and spray into another container. I can remove approx. 7 oz. Does'nt get it all but you can refill run your LC and do it again. Once it's clean you can replace the 7oz every other oil change and it always stays fresh. takes about 3 minutes.


:idea:
That's what the bulb syringe/turkey bastor is for. The :princess: got me one of my own after she saw me using the one from the kitchen on the ATF... :doh:
 
2cruisers said:
I take the top of a Windex or similar type spray bottle place it in the resorvoir and spray into another container. I can remove approx. 7 oz. Does'nt get it all but you can refill run your LC and do it again. Once it's clean you can replace the 7oz every other oil change and it always stays fresh. takes about 3 minutes.

Kalawang said:
Disconnect the return hose from the PS well and stick the end in a bottle. Run the engine and replace fluid in the PS well as it's level drops. When the fluid filling your bottle clears, you have flushed out the old fluid and it's time to turn off the engine, reconnect the return hose and top off the PS fluid level. After all is reconnected and topped off, run the engine with the cap of the PS well off. Look in the PS well for bubbles as a friend turns the steering lock to lock. When no more bubbles appear, you should be finished.

I did this PS flushing several times in an effort to get my PS more quiet because it was groaning. It didn't work for me and I finally had to remove the well and scrub out the parts manually. That worked. Flushing is only for mild problems,

I've got to say :rolleyes: lots of bad info. in the above posts :doh:

To answer the original question, follow Raventai's post..

Frank.
 
RavenTai said:
because of the action of the center differential if you do not lock the CDL and any one wheel is off the ground the parking "gear" will not stop the truck

if you do the other steps, set parking brake, block the rear wheels and lift on a flat surface you will still be OK, but it just takes a few seconds to lock the CDL having the redundancy of the parking pawl keep the 80 in place is a good thing,

had a good chance for a test of this tonight, last week end I removed the drivesahft to lube it and to diagnose a vibration (turned out to be tires out of ballance) I have not put the front shaft back in yet, been driving this week with the CDL locked.

the test: came into my driveway wicth has a slope in the middle, put in it in park, unlocked the CDL and let off the brake, the truck rolled down the hill in park,

interestingly enough got a chance to feel the Viscous coupler in action, on the steep part of the hill it kept the speed down, only letting it move at a set rate. when I got to the bottom and the driveway leveled off the speed went down the the drag of the VC tapered off still allowing the cruiser to creep along like the VC was not there. never experienced humping must take higher RPM.

so the VC steps up its force when the diffrence in RPM front to rear increases, and has almost no force at low RPM's.

darn, never thought about that... gotta try this and see for meself... good to know!
 
cruiserman said:
It's not very easy to see if there are bubbles in the PS reservoir. The fluid is very turbulent while the motor is running.

By my experience the fluid in the PS Well is turbulant for as long as dirt and bubbles are in the system. It does get clear after a while even if dirt is still in the system though a day or two is all the time you get before the dirt causes noise again. I've also found that flushing doesn't do enough to clean out the dirt if you've burnt your PS Fluid by useing it for too long a time, or by having run the engine hot or both. I found dirt got trapped and caked on the screen filter inside the PS Well, but was able to clean it off without damage by useing a toothbrush.

Of course, I had been ignorant of the need to change the fluid and had been useing it for three years before the PS finally made enough noise to bring itself to my attention. It also didn't help that I made long trips in very dusty places. I therefore had a lot of time to build up the dirty stuff and burnt my PS fluid. I had also run my engine very hot before I noticed the temp gauge. I had developed a leak in my thermostat that sprinkled my radiator water all along the road. In my case, therefore, it was a choice of either the expensive replace the Well and also possibly the pump trick, or try cleaning it first and if that doesn't work, replace the Well and if it's still not enough, throw in a new pump. The cleaning worked as was expected because steering was still normal except for the annoying groaning.

For me flushing was not enough, but if you saw the caked dirt inside the well, you would understand why. If I had wanted to spend a lot of repetitions flushing the PS Well, I suppose I would have eventually gotten it clean enough as after every flushing I was able to drive for a day or two before the groaning came back and PS Fluid doesn't cost much, but I would probably have ended up wasteing gallons of the stuff. Manual cleaning was better for me.

I now do a regular flush every two months in the manner I described. If I gain more confidence, I may extend the time to three or more months. A manual clean isn't all that difficult for me as labor is cheap where I am and they let me watch the entire job.

One word of warning that I neglected in my earlier post. Have a caution removing the return hose. Its difficult to slip it off and might require the help of a flat screwdriver. If so, check the end of the hose for deforming, fraying or other damage as that could become the cause of a leak as I experienced. The repair, if you have enough excess length, is to carefully cut off the damaged end, as little as possible, and then refit the hose. If you don't have enough hose, it would be better to replace the entire length immediatly though you would find fitting the other end very difficult as I also experienced, or maybe the new hose I got was just too virgin to accept the fit.


Kalawang
 
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