Cleaned power steering reservoir and flushed system and replaced fluid with full synthetic automatic transmission fluid. I raised the truck put it on jacks and turned the wheel from lock to lock. I first turned it left, then went and filled reservoir again, then turned it right, and went and filled reservoir again. I saw that the fluid was Clear i closed it all up. Turns really smooth now, i will do another flush in a couple of days. I can still hear a faint whine when turning i think its just going to be a little whine no matter what. I read somewhere someone changed the power steering pump and they could still hear a whine. After spraying the reservoir withe the cleaners i ran the water hose with a spray nozzle on it to rinse it out as much as possible.
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Cleaned my reservoir this afternoon. It didn't look as bad as yours, but I was surprised to see how much dark, crusty residue was in the bottom of the reservoir where the screen is. Not sure what it is...but it had a good portion of the screen blocked.
I let mine soak in mineral spirits (in my parts washer) then used compressed air to break up the crusty matter. I then filled the reservoir with M/S shook it around and then poured the contents out. Repeated until most of the screen and the insides of the reservoir looked clean.
It is difficult to remove particulates because the screen in the reservoir separates the top and bottom halves of the unit. Any residue in the top portion (where most of it is) has to come out the small hole in the opening at the top. And since that is 'recessed' somewhat, it is hard to get it to come out with the fluid alone. Blowing compressed air into it eventually removed most of it.
I had thought about just buying a replacement until I saw they run from $130.00 to $175.00. Not paying that for a piece of plastic.