While inspecting my engine last night, I found out one of my low pressure power steering hose (the one running behind the front nose panel) is leaking. I am planning to replace with high pressure hydraulic hose between the reservoir and the metal hose. I noticed the hose is coiled in a stiff plastic. Is this to protect from heat or to reinforce the hose? How pressure does the power steering exert? I will post pics as I go when I attempt this job.

 

That is to protect it from heat.
I have already replaced mine with fuel line. The power steering can be up to ~2000psi, but that's between the pump and rack. From the resevoir to pump, it's not even 1psi.

 

Ok, I thought it was just a little armoring, but I guess it could help with the heat too. I think there are two that have the plastic wrap the shorter one that goes from the resevoir to the cooler is readily changeable to a length of hose (power steering hose is readily available at autozone or napa). Just have to cut the sleeve - which prolly means pulling the cooler.


The other hose that goes from the reseveoir down to the pump has differnt size end pieces, which will make it a little more challenging to replace with off the shelf hose or just buy it from Paragon ~45.00.

A nice weekend project...Bruce

 

I replaced the hose without pulling the cooler out ... although I had the head lights out installing the Iceshark kit at the time (may have given me more room). A dremel fits down in there nicely. If you are careful with that black plastic covering stuff you can pull it off the old hose and put it over the replacement hose. I used fuel line also ... No leaks for a few thousand miles now.

I agree with F18 ... just buy the hose that goes from the reservoir to the pump if you plan on replacing it. Your pump may require an updated fitting if you use the "newer" style hose though ...

 

I bought some fuel hose, a little bit of size 5/8" and a little bit of size 1/2", 5/8" being the reservoir nipple and 1/2" being the pump nipple. I used a special 5/8 - 1/2 coupler my dad found at home depot, and I put straps to secure each line to the coupler. Then I dumped in 1/3 bottle of Automatic trans stop-leak, and some ATF, and it's been working, and it's still dry 4 months later.

 

Yea, I've seen a brass adapter used to step down the hose size, just haven't seen where to buy it. Thought that was a neat trick. Bruce

 

I got mine from home depot (a brass threaded adapter) for about $2.60. My dad found a really cool one, also in home depot, which was plastic and had jagged nipples (worked better than threads) for some cheap amount. Both parts work but I like the plastic one more.