[Steering] New Power Steering Pump and lines installed - Part I

[MuddinManny]

Register Now to remove most ads!

Hi guys,

Well, today I thought I'd have a nice 2 hour easy job of installing my new power steering pump and lines. Yeah, right. Some 7 hours later, I finished, and I'm totally exhausted. This job truly isn't for the weak or weary. Maybe it's easier once you've done a change-out, but this was my first. Lets get to the party.

First I winched my rig into Roland's welding shop and set myself up to work:



As usual, I lay out all the supplies and gather my tools:



New A-1 Cardone Power Steering Pump w/ Magna-Filtration, 07-2970F:



Gates pressure hose, #354860; and return hose, #362190:



and 4 quarts of premium power steering fluid:



First thing I did was remove the two bolts and 1 retaining nut so that I could remove the old pump assembly. The only bolt which was a little of a challenge was the one in-between the pulleys:



Here you can see the old pump, bracket, old lines and catch bottle removed from the engine:





Nice, clean engine compartment:



Now I turned my attention to pulling off the old lines from the back of the pump:



With the pressure line off, now it was time to remove the return line:



All lines off the old pump now. The pressure line is junk. The return line I held onto to measure a new one:



Time to pull the pulley!

Using a pulley puller, and a few tools for leverage, the pulley comes right off:





Billy, one of Sprockets shop helpers, gives me an added hand....



Leverage!



The pulley is off, but to my surprise, the bracket is broken in two places, and cracked in another!



Stress fractures from over tightening the tension on the pulley by the previous owners...



NO FEAR, Roland is here!



All welded up, and ground down, I bolt the bracket to the new pump:

Here you can see the two complete breaks repaired:



The bracket in place:



Billy and I team up again, install the pulley and she's ready to go!



Replace the one bolt on the rear:



and install the pressure and return lines:









With the lines attached, it was now time to put the new power steering box back into the truck.

This is where the frustration built. My failure to loosen the bracket that supports the A/C compressor and the other tab of the ps bracket ultimately prohibited realignment of all the ps bracket bolt holes. After about an hour, the light bulb came on, I got off the short little yellow bus, loosened that bracket bolt, and the box bolted right up. But then, because of all my positioning, the ps belt slipped off the crank pulley and I had to loosen everything up again, reposition the belt, and tighten again.

If that wasn't enough, it took me another 2 hours just to get the pressure line threaded into the gear box. I accidently cross-threaded the fitting trying to get the hose fitting to start in the gear box. Thanksfully Roland and Billy were able to "chase" the thread and repair it, and then the fitting went right in. I learned that the lines must be positioned just right in order for the fittings to mate with the gear box.

Here's the bolt I forgot to loosen which caused all my initial frustration:



The pump in position, all tightened down, and the belt with the right tension:



The new lines attached to the steering gear box:



By now it is 16:00 (4PM) and it's clean-up time. Tomorrow, I will fill the pump and bleed the system and I'll have completed the cross-over conversion of my rig. Well worth it!

This was a first timer for me, so I hope this will help others not make the same mistakes. I'll update tomorrow with the bleeding procedure. Till then...

Thanks,

Manny

[VegasBruce]

Its amazing how simple jobs can turn into all day projects.

[4x4 Mecca]

That's awesome! Great write up.

[cbbr]

Yep.

[gmc4cw]

good job Manny.


although you should have modified the pump before you put it in. basically you do the same mods you would for hydro assist but without the ram. it makes a big difference. then if you do go to hydro you don't have to pulll the pump back off and take it apart.

[MrK5]

Nice work! You always take good pictures.

[Chevy305]

Holy crap! Manny I haven't seen you in forever! Have you been hanging out here this whole time?

Glad to see you back to working on the truck and making awsome writeups! But I don't see any mud on that truck!

[walla2k5]

Nice work manny. I'm afraid I may have to do this in the near future also..