aaddpp

Today I got my car started after changing the various belts (alt, ps, air, and a/c), all cooling hoses, and fuel lines. Thankfully no leaks anywhere, but the p/s pump is howling at me. When I look in the resevoir I see classic frothing. All I did on this system was change te belt. Procedure followed:

1. Could not get enough slack to remove belt, so I removed the screws on the p/s pump that hold the front drive wheel.
2. Same on the replace. Had little slack, and used a ratchet / bar to turn engine to roll belt onto the p/s pump.

On 2 there was not a lot of force as it was almos there but needed some help to get round the bend.

Any thoughts here on a solution. Can I remove the belt an run w/o a p/s pump for now?

Dave

StratfordShark

Hi Dave,

It's possible there's damage to the pump from the procedure you followed to loosen/replace the belt.

The pas belt tension is adjusted by loosening the (3) bolts in the slots, and then turning the adjuster bolt. You shouldn't have to remove the pulley. I wonder if when you levered the belt on, the shaft may have been bent and this is allowing air in?

AO

You'll need arms of steel to operate w/o a belt. Strange that a belt change would cause this. There are 3 bolts that hold the carrier in place. Two by the tensioning bolt and one hidden down by the alt. The belts can be a real bugger to get on. I usually have to walk them on. Never had a pump froth up on me...

aaddpp

I was hoping to use the car without p/s as a temp measure just to take the car for a spin and get it moving since it has been sitting for a while. I figured it will be a like a European rental car of the 1980's (no power steering) :-)

Is there a bleed process for this system? Also is there any harm to run without the p/s pump operational?

Bill Ball

The bleed process is to run the motor and move the steering from side to side. I've never had an issue bleeding the PS system when, say, replacing the rack and/or hoses. You get frothing for only a short while.

Make sure all the hose fittings are tight and did not come loose when you moved the pump while replacing the belt. It's possible you are sucking in some outside air on the suction side, BUT you would have a red puddle forming on the floor once you stop the motor as a clue to that.

Anyway, not sure what happened, but you may be looking at rebuilding/replacing the pump.

docmirror

On rare cases you can have a small leak on the low pressure side of the hose and it may be allowing air to get in. Rare though.

StratfordShark

It's possible to drive w/o the pump (I had to do it when my pump failed - but only to the guy who had a replacement to fit) but it's very hard work at low speeds.

There's a major safety issue in that you can brake for a hazard, and be taken by surprise again by how much effort is needed to steer at the lower speed. This is potentially very dangerous if you need a big steering input at that point. So you have to drive very defensively, and be thinking ahead constantly. Of course this should always be case in driving, but need becomes acute!

Frothing aside, how is the level in the reservoir? If it's dropped have a good look with a strong light to see if PAS fluid has escaped anywhere.

BC

This sometimes goes away with proper bleeding and quite a bit of driving. It would be good if it never happened, but whenever I have changed a pump, even when I have primed it, it has happened.

Mrmerlin

is it possible that the wrong bolts got put back into the pump pulley?? if so then one may be too long and its hitting the pump housing side of the pulley mount

Rob Edwards

I had the groaning PS pump syndrome after R&Ring PS hoses on my GT, solution was to buy a Rennbay re-seal kit and rebuild the pump. It's cheap ($20) and easy. (Just don't be like me, and remember to put all the pump bolts back in......)


Kit:

http://www.rennbay.com/pump-928-powe...-kit-p-43.html


Link to thread with link to rebuild video:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...-together.html

Lizard928

Inspect the hoses for where air can come in.

That said, yes you can drive without power steering. I do on 2 of my cars. 1 is a track car, the other is because the rack has a problem and I have not had time to change it yet.

But for the air to get into there, it has to be getting in from somewhere and would not be caused by cavitation, or the pump would fail very very fast.

Tampa 928s

Same issue with an 86.5 it was the low pressure side sucking in air. We did the lock to lock drove it for a while and still foamed. Found the end of the hose had a small crack repaired in two minutes all was well!

Imo000

You can drive it without the PS belt, at near stop, it will be very difficult to turn but once rolling it will be managable. I had an issue with mine and decided to cut the belt until I get to it. I has been a year but the car is drivebale without one.

jpitman2

iNCOMING HOSE BEING restricted can do this too - BTDT, dreadful noise.
jp 83 Euro S AT 52k

dr bob

For the most part, the fluid should de-aerate itself in a day or if you purge the big bubbles now. Start the car and cycle the steering slowly lock-to-lock a few times. Big bubbles will vent at the reservoir. Shut it down, top the reservoir if needed, come back tomorrow. Top the now-de-aerated reservoir again if needed, and you should be ok.

For stubborn/sensitive systems, you can vacuum-de-aerate the fluid in the reservoir with a little vacuum. Vacuum makes the bubbles grow larger, so they rise to the top in the reservoir faster, and the air gets pulled out into the vacuum pump.

A poor-man's version of this is to plumb a spare reservoir cap with a little vacuum hose nipple, and connect it to the engine manifold vacuum. Start the engine and let it idle while you slowly cycle the steering lock to lock a few times. Air causing the bubbles gets drawn into the intake. It just takes a few minutes to purge all the air from the PS system, ASSUMING YOU HAVE NO EXTERNAL AIR LEAKS. If you do, your vacuum system will draw air in and make more bubbles.