PS Pump, rear bolt missing, reason behind my leak?

[Qwaarjet]

As some may have read before, I'm a recent member of the FJ60 club. Bought mine a couple weeks ago, power steering has had issues since day one. If i fill her up with ATF, power steering will work fine, for a 15+ minute ride, but when i get back home i see a nasty leak going, and most of the fluid already gone. Wasn't able to see where the leak was coming from other than it's from the PS pump. I removed the pump and noticed the rear bracket bolt was missing. I'm guessing the previous owner had the pump worked on and the bolt was lost or thrown away in anger over it being a PITA to remove judging from some of the thread's i've read around here... Could the stress caused by the lack of support be the reason behind the leak? Could a simple lol rebuild and added bolt be all that's needed?

btw thanks again for such a great board, i figured out how to greatly reduce the steering wheel slop from reading the threads here along without various other issues. you guys rock

 

[35inchoverdrive]

If you are emptying the resevior in 15 minutes, then you could probably pinpoint the leak relatively easily. Just pop the hood while it's running, and have someone else turn the wheels back and forth and you should be able to see it practically spraying from somewhere. That should help you to decide exactly what needs to be rebuilt/replaced. It could just be one of the hoses.

 

[2mbb]

The rear bolt is probably not the cause of your leak. If you do a search you will discover that the original rear bolt is typically just a little too long to allow the power steering pump to come out (with the exhaust manifold installed. The last guy to work on the pump left it out rather than deal with it. Most folks grind away the first few threads to make the bolt a little shorter.

Rebuilding this pump is possible, but be careful when/if you take it apart. There are spring-loaded slippers with about 50 little springs that will try and escape if you let them.

 

[Qwaarjet]

ok, i did what you said to do 35inchoverdrive, and i found it the leak, spraying from here whenever the wheels were turned

is that a fixable area or do i need a new pump?

 

[35inchoverdrive]

I didn't price a rebuild kit, but a reman pump can be had for under $100 from a local parts store. This includes a lifetime warranty. O'reilly Auto Parts has them for about $90 and Autozone has them for around $100. If you can afford it, I would probably just get a new pump and forget about it. If the pump has been run (almost) dry several times, it might not be worth trying to rebuild it. Someone else might chime in with an easy fix for a leaky shaft, but it sounds like that thing would be a pain to rebuild.

 

[Norris Marshak]

If you go rebuilt, you will likely have to use your current reservoir. Be certain to replace the O-ring on the bottom of the reservoir and the O-ring on the front mounting bolt. Be careful not to lose the woodruff key when you take the pulley off. If you go new, the reservoir is included.

 

[dtrain]

If you go rebuilt, you will likely have to use your current reservoir. Be certain to replace the O-ring on the bottom of the reservoir and the O-ring on the front mounting bolt. Be careful not to lose the woodruff key when you take the pulley off. If you go new, the reservoir is included.

Can you please show me on the pic above the the "o-ring on the front mounting bolt"?

I am going to replace the o-ring to the resevoir tonight and didnt know about other one.