Getting rid of air in Power Steering System

[SirMyztiq]

My brother and I are at our last hump. When we moved the steering pump to take off the intake manifold, we let air into the system. The car screeches and whines when I turn the steering wheel and it sometimes gets extremely hard. I can see tons of bubbles inside the canister. I've looked around for a while but never got a good idea of how I can get rid of this annoyance. So I must turn for y'alls wisdom on the issue.

What is the proper way to get rid of the air in the power steering system?

I changed three of the clamps to the screw-type clamps and made sure all the hoses are nice and tight. There are still bubbles in there. We tried some ways to bleed it but we could never figure out which is the proper method. Any help will help! Thank you!

 

[SirMyztiq]

Alright! I'm going to try that today. We did something similar to that but we weren't sure if we should leave the cap on or off. I hope this fixes it.

 

[SirMyztiq]

After a good test drive, the issue still persists.

We left it idling for a while, gave it a couple of spins around the neighborhood but it hardly improved. When the reservoir is full, there is a lot of "jumpy" liquid. The sort of bubbles you get when you blow into a straw in a drunk. We replaced all but one of the brackets on the lines and we can't help to wonder if we are leaking somewhere else. Or maybe its the pump but it was working fine before we took it off. We didn't unhook it or anything, we just plainly took it off.

Any help would be appreciated while we try and tackle this issue!

 

[SirMyztiq]

Thay should have worked... Is there a bleed screw on your steering rack

I'm not sure, I'll check and get back to you. The car doesn't come with one does it?

As soon as I fill it up it begins to jump out. It is just weird! I'm going to try turning the wheels manually like some others recommended. Have you seen that before, the liquid being all "jumpy" as if it was boiling almost?

 

[SirMyztiq]

Quick update:

So, we are currently turning the wheel, jacks up with the car off. We noticed that the bubbles are still there but only when turning the steering wheel to the left. When turning right there is no bubbles. When turning and locking to the left there is some bubbles. Does that mean we are getting anything accomplished? The car is off but I can see the fluid level rise and lower as we turn the wheel.

 

[SirMyztiq]

It takes a while? I see, maybe we are being impatient. The guy at O'Reillys said it can take up to two hours. I went and bought the O-ring for the pump anyways. I'm going to keep on turning. Here is a video of what is happening:


As you can see, as soon as we start the car there are many more bubbles. After we turned the car off and turned the steering wheel, fluid just oozed out.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsJK-NfQ-A0

 

[SirMyztiq]

Theres a bubble in the rack or its clogged.

Alright so after visiting the hardware store and finding the 10mmx14mmx2mm O-ring and replacing it. The fluid goes up and down in the bottle when the engine is off and we turn the steering wheel. There seems to no longer be any bubbles.

However, after turning on the car and doing the same left-to-right to lock, now the steering wheel gets stiff and vibrates. It doesn't do it right away and there are no bubbles when we are able to turn it but after a couple of turns it just locks up and everything begins to vibrate. The steering wheel and the tires.

 

[SirMyztiq]

I should add that this happens only when I turn the steering quickly. If I turn it slowly it does not vibrate but when I turn it quickly to the right they vibrate heavily. I should add that it only does it when turning the steering wheel to the right.

Any input will help!

 

[Got2Boostit2]

Tires on the ground it might vibrate. Make sure the power steering belt is clean and tight. Then go out and drive somewhere safely so you can go left right like in formula one several times. Then get it back jacked up and go almost lock to lock about two dozen times. If that doesn't fix it you have other problems.

 

[SirMyztiq]

Tires on the ground it might vibrate. Make sure the power steering belt is clean and tight. Then go out and drive somewhere safely so you can go left right like in formula one several times. Then get it back jacked up and go almost lock to lock about two dozen times. If that doesn't fix it you have other problems.

What do you mean tires on the ground it might vibrate? We double checked the belts. I'll try that tomorrow at a park down the street.

 

[SirMyztiq]

Like I said, this is a slow process

Slow I can handle. But this is new. This shaking is new

 

[Bluedemon_II]

Mine did that. I solved it by replacing the pump. The vibrations come from loss of pressure and the sudden rise of it in the steering rack. Just my .2 cents. Infact, I think I have a spare pump in storage... I need to get rid of my old parts bin... Dam I miss my car.

 

[SirMyztiq]

Mine did that. I solved it by replacing the pump. The vibrations come from loss of pressure and the sudden rise of it in the steering rack. Just my .2 cents. Infact, I think I have a spare pump in storage... I need to get rid of my old parts bin... Dam I miss my car.

Really! I was afraid someone was going to say this.

If you need to get rid of your spare pump I would sure like to be first in line

If the PS was working fine before this, could moving it to get to the intake manifold really damage it? Well, when we bled it, we did have it run with no PS for a minute or so.

 

[SirMyztiq]

Quick thought: If my steering pump went bad, why would changing the O-ring cause it to go bad? It wasn't vibrating like it is now before. I just find it weird that it would start doing it after changing the O-ring.

 

[SirMyztiq]

I just remembered something:

When we were trying to figure out if there were leaks, my brother tried loosening the banjo bolts that sits on top of the pump. It is that weird looking one with like a circle in between some washers. When we tightened it back down, it was leaking like crazy so then we tightened it until the leaking stopped.

I'm beginning to think we might of overtorqued it and ruined the washers. Think that could be an issue?

 

[SirMyztiq]

Update: I checked the torque on the banjo bolt and we actually came pretty close to the 29lb/ft torque it was supposed to be at. NO leaks.

 

[SirMyztiq]

I Know someone on this thread said something about dropping it from the jacks.

After much turning and twisting. After much bleeding and rebleeding. There were no bubbles but still heavy vibrations when turning right. Then my brother thought, "hmm, the right side is higher than the left side(on the jacks)" then we dropped it from the jacks and tried turning the steering wheel. GONE. Vibration gone. I Just came back from a quick track session at the local park and the car handles beautifully. NO more vibrations. NO more bubbles.

Could it really be that the fluid was getting pushed to the right side(b/c it was higher on the jacks on the left side of the car) and caused it to vibrate the way it did?

B/c if it did then there you have it. Lesson learned the long and hard way.

:tard:

 

[SirMyztiq]

Here are some videos of what was happening for future reference in case some one does the thing I did. Kind of sad really how...just...random it was.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SirMyztiq?feature=mhee

[URL]http://www.youtube.com/user/SirMyztiq?feature=mhee#p/a/u/1/VPqWsjAy_94[/URL]

 

[Got2Boostit2]

So if I understand your post, you raised the car with jacks (no equal height jack stands)? At any point prior did you lower the car on the ground as I suggested in an earlier post? Anyway, issue resolved, right? The sound in your first clip is not normal. That sound is gone now, right?

 

[SirMyztiq]

So if I understand your post, you raised the car with jacks (no equal height jack stands)? At any point prior did you lower the car on the ground as I suggested in an earlier post? Anyway, issue resolved, right? The sound in your first clip is not normal. That sound is gone now, right?

Silly, I know. We somehow lost our jack stands and we used two different ones of different size as well as the jacks for added security.

I lowered the car after reading through the thread again, I somehow didn't think it would work at first but my brother tried it out and voila.

You are wise sir. You are wise.

And yes, no more noise and the PS works perfectly.