Hi! How do I check if my power steering pump is good or not? Also when I steer it is sometime hard and then goes easy and back to hard. I have a rebuilt Power Cylinder and rebuilt Control Valve hence me thinking it's the Pump. Maybe cause I also hear slight slip here and there, possibly of the belt, how do i check it is this belt causing this? Thanks !
I doubt a pump will be the issue of sudden hard then normal steering... Sounds more like the belt is slipping... As far as checking, if the tension is correct(around 100ft lbs for used belt), then just go ahead and replace it... You likely would if replacing pump, hopefully problem is fixed...
I just had that problem on my Cobra Jet but was due to recently painted pulley grooves causing new belt to slip... After the third time of re-tensioning it seems to be OK...
By the way, anything I should know about changing a belt? Noting the placement of the pump, untie it, get a new belt, position it in the same spot for tension and done or? Or is this just wishfull thinking?
Wishful thinking... New belt, basically pull pump as far out on adjustment as you can get and tighten it up... New belt spec is somewhere around 130ft lbs, as long as you aren't using a 3ft long pry bar, snug as possible is good... BTW... DO NOT pry on pump cannister, it's just thin metal easy to poke a hole in it or distort, possibly causing a leak where it meets the pump just behind pulley...
So I changed the belt, being carful where to pry to put to right tension, the car started being smoother on the steering but then everytime I drive it, it starts smooth and as I drive steering gets a bit harder. Never as hard as a none power steering car, but it gets harder and stays hard. Don't know if as everything is rebuilt now it is supposed to be that way as I always had the previous set up that needed a rebuild!
Hi Jett: Do you have aluminum pulleys ? Sometimes a "V" Belt will actually wear away some of the surface of the pulley in the valley where the belt travels. I switched out an Aluminum V-Belt setup and converted to a ' serpentine belt ' setup and haven't had any problems . Did this on three cars .. all of them successful > Cometized (Chip)
I wouldn't think a slipping belt would cause a constant condition, at least I've never seen such... My experience is they are fine until a high load is placed on pump such as low speed turns or working in/out of a parking space... So what's causing your issue??? I dunno... I believe there is a recommended pressure test to determine health of pump but I've never done so... Would need a gauge that's capable of reading several hundred pounds pressure... Over the years I've generally had "spares" of most components needed, so usually just do a swap... Is pump noisy?? Does it moan if steering is turned to extreme R or L?.
The pump is not noisy but it does get to some moaning on extreme R or L when at its hardest, usually after a bit of driving.
Sounds to me like the control valve is out of adjustment. Remove the cap and try to loosen the nut some on the adjustment ... if worse, then reverse and tighten the nut some.
It won't do any harm to adj valve and could help though any problem with adjustment usually results in one direction being easy(power) and other direction having little or no assist... Proper adj to center spool valve is tighten nut till it's snug(something like 100 inch pounds)... Just don't go crazy, when it starts to tighten, stop... Then you back nut off exactly ¼ turn... Note there will be some "free play" where bolt will move maybe 1/16 turn before the nut actually turns on bolt... Make sure nut actually turns ¼ turn on the bolt... Reinstall cap, do not try to operate steering without it...
When I rebuilt the Control Valve I did use a torque wrench to go to 100 inch pound then back 1/4 of a turn, so I should loosen it a bit more?
The specs in shop manual states exactly ¼ turn, being sure the nut turns on bolt that amount... The valve on Comet and Cobra Jet operate just fine using that adjustment...
