Copilot

Running through a bunch of my post engine-overhaul glitches - during the process of having the engine out, I noticed it looked like the power steering pump was leaking, so I got a Rennbay seal kit, resealed it (super easy, just like the video said), and put it back in.

Installed it as per the Clark's Garage tutorial, replaced all the crush rings with new and filled it with fresh fluid - did the bleeding procedure as well.

When driving, it feels like I'm completely manual. I've checked and nothing is leaking, I'm not losing any fluid, the belt is tensioned on the pump, everything looks like it should - but I've got no power from the rack!

Any ideas?

Jrboulder

Maybe the pump isn't making any pressure?

Copilot

Perhaps - is there anything in the rack that would somehow not work, yet not leak fluid?

Hollywood D

That diamond shaped thing on the front of the tower adjusts the amount of pressure on the rack. You need enough pressure to keep the splines against each other so the rack isn't slipping when you turn the wheel. Too much though and maybe it would be hard to turn? May be worth checking, although I don't know if you can actually tighten it so much it makes it difficult to turn.

xsboost90

did you flush the cooling loop while it was apart- those get super clogged with crap. Blow that out with some compressed air and if thats not it you need to pull the pump back apart.

Copilot

Dan - just saw your post above - NO, I haven't tried that - and I'm going to! I'm excited now, because THAT would explain why I could pull the pump apart, see nothing broken, and yet not have the power steering work.

A little bummed that I get to coat myself with ATF fluid again so soon when I pull those lines off - but happy that it'll hopefully work.

Copilot

Hmm... well, I blew the loops out.... still nothing.

I was extra careful when I rebuilt the pump... so if it's not working now, I'm guessing that it's a problem other than bad seals - and therefore a new pump is required.

Any other last ditch ideas before I buy a new pump?

Tedro951

With the engine running, does the ATF in the PS reservoir "look" like its circulating? It isn't a crazy flow, but is visible. Not sure that would change your mind on the pump replacement, but it would at least confirm that fluid is circulating. It would help diagnose a pinched hose or line, possibly.

BTW, your question above about not assisting, but not leaking.... yes, if the spool valve is bad, it wont assist or leak.

turbo944

Just got my car running again and starting to drive it around in the driveway and it felt the SAME way. You have air in there somewhere would be my guess. It took about 10-15 times or so to get most of it out and I took the car for a front end alignment today and it started with that manual feel turning to the left and so I pulled into the parking lot about 100 feet down the street and kept it in a left turn for about 360 degrees and POP! out came the air and it's been beautiful ever since! Went back and forth in turns a couple of extra times to make sure before the alignment, but all is well. Took longer than I expected to get the air out is all.

Good luck!

Copilot

I'll give that a whirl. I've been driving it for about 100 miles though since and still nothing... though, not a lot of full wheel turns. I tried bleeding it per Clarks.

No fluid circulating when I look at the reservoir either.

Tedro951

Still could be the pump, but I'd look at the line on top of the Xmember for crushing.

Its really hard to screw up the pump rebuild. Did you watch Travis' video on it?

Copilot

I'll double check the pinched line. As far as the pump rebuild, yeah, I used Travis's kit and video. I don't think I screwed up the rebuild - I'm thinking there's something else wrong with the pump that I either can't see or is not seal related - as the pump is not leaking whatsoever.

Copilot

Update - I have power! I threw three things at it - I replaced the pickup line (most likely not the problem, more of a "while you're in there" thing), I replaced the reservoir (another while you're in there thing), and I replaced the pump with one I got from a friend that I KNEW was working.

Problem solved! My guess is my pump was bad - probably something shredded internally that I didn't notice. Either way, no worries - I have it now, and it's GLORIOUS.

Raindrop

I know I am replying to an 11 years old post but I had a similar issue when I rebuilt my power steering pump I think I found the fix for this issue. So I am replying to this thread so may be that my solution can help others.

My steering pump was not leaking and was working fine but since I was installing a new steering rack, I thought why not just rebuilt the pump as well. So I used the Rennbay rebuilt kit to rebuilt my steering as YouTube video posted by Rennbay looked straight forward. However after rebuilding and installing the pump, I had the same issue as @Copilot as pump was not generating any pressure. I even disconnected the return hose from the reservoir to see if any fluid was returning to reservoir, but even moving the steering sided by side (engine idle, wheels off the ground) did not produce any fluid from the return line.

I was suspecting the inner seal might have sucked in to the holes as reported by other posters so I disassembled the pump but seals were fine. So I started watching other videos posted on the YouTube. While watching one video, I realized that when reassembling the inner-plate back on the pump , one has to make sure that two rounded elevations on the pump are inserted in the 2 holes on the back of the inner-plate. I missed that step as Rennbay & PelicanParts instructions do not elaborate on this step.

Here is the video describing this reassembly step from a BMW power steering pump (time stamp 3:40) :






After securing the inner-plate on rounded elevations on the pump, it is now working fine.

Cheers . @Travis - sflraver

Raindrop

Anyone rebuilding the Power Steering pump, plz also see my tip in this POST .