bfellows

More advice needed: I can't see any visible cracking, or damage, but my reservoir seems to be leaking from the middle as indicated. I think that most of the fluid on the pipes has come from this area. Is the reservoir in two halves?

Wild Bill

I had a similar oily mess and resolved it by replacing the hoses. I'll bet there is nothing wrong with your reservoir and that accumulation of grunge is just a build up from spray coming off the belts and pulleys.

Bill

Mrmerlin

Time to replace the power steering resivour and both of the fluid lines that attach to it .flush the system before installing the new resivour, and make sure to turn the wheels a few times to get the old fluid out of your rack, dont over tighten the new resivour mounting point

dr bob

What Stan said...

The reservoir is also the filter for the fluid, so a periodic change of both is not a bad idea. The new reservoir comes with a new cap and o-ring seal. Since you're going to make a big mess anyway, pull the return line and put it in a small bucket, plug the bottom of the old reservoir and run a can of ATF through to flush out any spare parts rattling around in the system. The return line probably need replacement too, since it's old, hard, and won't seal well. This is your likely leak anyway, so plan on the reservoir filter as a secondary PM while you replace the hose and all that ATF. It's a bit of a mess with the ATF all over the place, but it cleans up nicely with a little Simple Green when your'e done.