power steering over heating?

[rc51kid]

I was out on a trail for the last few days and really worked the power steering. It was 90 degrees, climbing out of a canyon on switch backs that took 4 point turns for several hours. At one point I looked under the truck and had a very small drip. Later I found it to be my power steering. It was a little wet around the top of the reseaviour. Almost like it had gotten hot and built to much pressure and over flowed some. The pump and lines have been replaced rebuilt. No wine or noise, no other leaks, working great. Is this normal under hard use? Did I over fill it a bit? Does the cap have a seal that wears out?

 

[Hornd]

Use Sythetic ATF?
If you open the cap while it's running you will see it appears like a rolling boil.
My cap leaks some as top always appears greasy.

 

[Wayne]

^X2

 

[John McVicker]

Don't know if the cap on an 80 is similar to my 60 but I had the exact same issue, last week I did something that has solved the problem completely.

The cap seal is rubber and has shrunk and gotten brittle over time. I removed that seal, used it as a template and made an additional seal out of some rubber I had around. It was a tight fit, but I reinstalled BOTH seals. Two wheeling events since then with one being very hard on the PS, so far no leaks.

John

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

In Arizona many of us use Mobile DTE24 in our PS systems and never see over heating.

 

[rc51kid]

Good to know guys. It worked fine, no wine or other complaint. I will try a new cap or seal. Then maybe a different fluid. The fluid is all new since my rebuild a few months ago. Also want to run the same I have in my trans. I imagine to switch to synthetic I would need to complete ly drain both systems.

 

[Dave 2000]

Unsure if there is a vent there but, the hotter the fluid gets the more it expands. The dipstick has a hot and cold reading to ensure no over filling. As the fluid does expand then the air around it being compressed must go somewhere, so vent or not a tight cap seal? The fluid cooler often corrodes and people bypass them. Is yours still there?

regards

Dave