Best way to flush steering box??

[shadango]

SO my son and I are swapping out the leaky old power steering pump on the 80 Volare.....

Picked up the pulley puller last night after pulling the pump out of the car.....will finish the job this evening.

I know we need to flush the steering box out......question is what is the best way to do it what with the old pump out of the car already?

We dont want to contaminate the new pump with old fluid......was thinking that after installing the new pump, we could keep the low pressure hose detached from the pump maybe and pour fluid into the pump and let it pump through to the steering box and then back out via that hose?

Or is there a better/easier way to do it without running the car? I have compressed air at my disposal....so I can pressurize the hi gh pressure side of the gear box and push the old stuff out that way maybe....

Just want a thorough flush ........steering was fine before we started and want to keep it that way....LOL

Thanks all....

 

[slant6billy]

With the pump removed, jack the car up to get both front wheels off the ground. Now you can turn the steering full end to end and it should blow the line out. To go further you could get a hand crank pump to push good fluid into the steering box. A little bit of old won't ruin the day - keep that in mind

 

[shadango]

With the pump removed, jack the car up to get both front wheels off the ground. Now you can turn the steering full end to end and it should blow the line out. To go further you could get a hand crank pump to push good fluid into the steering box. A little bit of old won't ruin the day - keep that in mind

Awesome thanks!

 

[BudW]

Empting a steering gear, to ship, is a not fun job to do.
You have to turn gear upside down then crank gear over back and forth. Even after removing what seems like gallons of fluid, and draining upside down for hours. The gear is guaranteed to leak copious amounts before it arrives at its destination.

I agree with Slant6billy, with pump and lines off (or on and dangling down to a bucket), turn wheel both ways several times and most will come out. There is no way to get all out without performing surgery. Getting most out will do wonders.

BudW

 

[shadango]

Thanks....yeah we just hooked a hose to the lo pressure side and I put a small funnel in the high pressure side....poured in some fluid while he turned the wheel back and forth.... then stopped pouring and kept turning til nothing else came out..... hopefully that's good enough.

We worked on getting the pulley off the pump while it drained. .....pita.

The tool we rented went bad and that was the main issue. ..had to run out and exchange the tool .....still have to put the new pulley on. Hoping that goes without incident.

 

[shadango]

As an aside, hi jacking my own thread.....I noticed the alignment of the stock brackets and pump is off relative to the crank etc....no doubt one thing that led to this pump going bad.. I know from my cuda that alignment of the pulleys can be a real pain.....any tricks to the ps pump alignment on a slant 6?

 

[80mirada]

You could install the pulley with the pump on the engine so you can align the pulleys

 

[BudW]

V-Belt alignment – is also a PITB.
That is one thing I do like about serpentine belts and automatic belt tensioners. So much easier to work with.

That said, you can use the “pulley install” to move the pulley outwards (towards front of car) if needed to go that direction.
You can make/use shims on pump (in many cases) to brackets and press pulley full on, of pulley needs to go inwards (towards rear of car).
They also make shims for crank pulley and water pump pulley which moves both (either) of those pulleys outwards (towards front of car), as well.

Mancini Racing Crankshaft Pulley Spacer
0.125” (crank pulley)

Mancini Racing Water Pump Spacer
0.060” (water pump pulley)

You said this was for a /6 – so crank pulley shim, may or might not work.

Sometimes those brackets get bent, especially if engine was removed before (things happen).

BudW

 

[shadango]

Well I guess we will see what we can do.

We did run into another issue though. ....after we installed the pulley on the new pump we noticed that it has as much play as the old one.....I know end play is normal....but it has "up down" play.

That doesn't seem right.....we replaced the old pump because it was leaking from the shaft and had the play/wobble. Now the new one has play?

Dangit. Video link below....

Video by shadango_bucket

 

[shadango]

Well, after several days waiting for the second one, it came in. It has the same amount of play as the first one.

neither were as bad as the leaky original one....so we decided to run it and see what happens......its leak free so far and has a lifetime warranty thru advanced auto....hoping it stays leak free.

I still hate the way the pulley lines up....but we stared at that pump bracketry for an hour and couldnt see any way to make it any better even with shims. its like the whole setup is twisted counter clockwise a touch. But the brackets look straight.....more like how it is mounted to the block/AC comp/air pump unit.

 

[BudW]

Could you take several pictures (different angles) and post them, please.
I have some idea's - but can't remember the /6 setup.

 

[shadango]

Hope these work....

 

[shadango]

Here's another

 

[BudW]

Here's another

I think this picture might be too big to show.
It says 3.8 MB. I'm thinking (not sure though) there is a 1.5 MB limit.

 

[BudW]

My cell phone takes pictures which are 5,312 x 2,988, which equal 16 MB per file.