Kamilo77

Well i think the biggest comparison is the before and after. Its difficult to park and navigate at low speeds it was not like that before.

wpgshark

When you did the rack kit did you clock the rack before putting it back together?

When I did mine I put it back together in the position that it was in, a quick manual test on the bench indicated it was too tight. Took it apart, installed the alignment bolt in the rack and reassembled much smoother.

Resealed rack, new seals and a stronger bypass spring in the pump, rebuilt lines and a new reservoir and even my daughter is OK with the Car, it has 18's. The steering is heavier than everything else we own, although close to my sons 944. but totally acceptable.

Landseer

Reservoir reportedly has non cleanable internal filter that can necome occluded. That would be first suspect.

Be sure hoses at rack are not swapped. Seems like with some extra hamfisted effort it is possible to flip them. Just sayin, probably not your issue.

The Forgotten On

Earlier 928s up to 82 iirc have a metal reservoir that doesn't have a filter.

Landseer

I never knew that, sorry!

The Forgotten On

It's all good. There's just less sh*t to replace in the earlier cars.

z driver 88t

Oh, sorry. Did not realize this was a change in steering response. I thought you meant it was just heavy to steer in general.

When I had my high pressure line split and lost fluid you could DEFINITELY tell there was no power steering assist. I would expect the only thing that would prevent power assist from happening if you have fluid is either 1) a fluid blockage, or 2) somehow the impeller of the pump is damaged or otherwise not turning to provide power assists. Honestly, both seem unlikely, but to proceed.

The first should be easy to check just by flushing the system and making sure the fluid drains and fills without anything "wierd" happening.

Just hypothesizing, but to test if the pump was actually functioning, (and this will be messy) I think you could fill the reservoir, disconnect the low-pressure return hose at the bottom of the reservoir and plug the reservoir with a large vacuum cap.

Then if you start the car and turn the wheel back and forth you should see a lot of fluid coming out of the return hose (have a bucket handy). I'm thinking the reservoir would have enough fluid to pump for about 15 seconds - at least enough to tell if the pump was pumping.

If the pump is pumping and there is no blockage, then you really have a mystery. The only other thing I could imagine could be that the rack itself or possibly the swivel joint at the steering shaft is somehow binding up internally.

Just a thought.

Kamilo77

Found a used pump in good condition. Installed it today and behold, power steering is good as new!

Im pleased now that most of the major dirty work, oil pan, brakes, rear main, steering, etc are now all sorted. Time to move onto the interior and electronics before eventual body work and respray.