My A/C compressor went bad so I decided to bypass it. I have v-belts so I simply removed the belt on the compressor. I start the car and all of a sudden, the power steering belts starts to squeal real loudly. Everything is spinning correctly and no burnt rubber smell. So I shut the engine off and tighten up the bolts. Same thing. loud squeal. I then decide to replace the previous compressor belt back (since a small section also helps power the pump) and tighten everything. I turn the car on, loud squeal. But goes away after a min or two. I drive the car around and nothing. When I stop at a light, and then go, the belts start squealing again, but then stop once the engine maintains a steady rpm. I'm not sure what the problem might be. Low powersteering fluid? I just think its weird it started doing this after I tightend up the bolts. Its almost like the pump is stiff to turn but does after a couple of secs. Thanks.

 

Belt not tight enough

DO NOT pry on the body of the pump to tighten it!!!! You WILL create a leak that way, by bending the reservoir and ruining the sealing of that 4" or so O-ring that seals the pump body to the reservoir.

 

How do I properly tighten the pump. I had to remove the whole compressor to even get to to the proper bolts?

 

Did you ever find out how to fix this problem on tightening them?
I got my car running again and as I started it there was this godawful screech until the car ran for a bit then it stopped.

Now it does this way too much, was thinking that the power steering pump was bad hence I was going to replace it.

The noise is now more frequent and I did find power stearing fluid all over the pump. So I still might need to replace it or fix the leak.

Found a square 16mm nut that is really tight on the bracket that I'm trying to remvoe at the moment...

Now wondering if I just need to tighten things up, in which case I'll look tomorrow on how to tighten the band but what did you do to fix it?

 

PS fluid all over the pump is uaully due to one of 4 things:

1. Leak in low pressure side of system, allowing air in, which froths up and turns the fluid to foam in the reservoir, which makes it spew out the top just like shaking up a Coke bottle (in other words, you don't see the leak where the leak is, instead the leak makes the pump cap spew)

2. Reservoir bent from improper tightening, making the big O-ring leak

3. High pressure line has a pinhole (their usual failure mode) shooting fluid onto the pump

4. Bad pump seal

In that order.

So, if I had a car doing what yours is, that's what I would look at, in that order. YOu probably won't get past #2 before you find it, I'd guess those first 2 account for probably 80-90% of such leaks.

 

thanks for the respnse, i'll need a cheater bar to remove some of the bracket nuts before i can examine the reservoir, that should give me an idea, either way ill just have to rebolt things anyways. from your reply it seems there is a seal or gasket to replace if i start removing stuff.. good to know, cant find my chilton or haynes manual and new to this repair.. found the diagram from doing a search so that helps...

 

Yeah, fluid leak is no good. What my problem actually ended up being is that my alternator ribbed belt wasn't tight enough... I'm not sure why I heard it at the PS pump...eitherway I ended up using one of those turn buckles with hooks on the end, that the more you turn the buckle, the tighter it gets...

 

Unfortunately for me I got it off yesterday in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep and found that the pulley was 'warped' looking and when I spun it it confirmed that it was bent out of shape.

The problem was that when I went online to my nearby part store websites they listed only the single belt pulley for my car and year. BUT my car has ac and the pulley was for the nonac.

Found a similar pulley to mine in the 1981 year and went and got that one; going to confirm if it will work in a few minutes. Also got a new pump w/reservoir since it was cheap at autozone for 46.XX bucks compared to checkers at 54 online and 64 at in store although they would match the online
price with proof aka a copy.

 

let me know if that pump works out... I've been thinking of replacing my p/s pump too...I think I have a tiny little baby leak somewhere, but nothing dripping or spewing...let me know the difficulty of installation...

 

Removing the power steering pump was actually easy. My stupid moments kept me from working on it quickly.

Step One: observe that there is a nut that is square shaped
--Do not try to wrench this nut, Why? Because it is welded on!
--What did I do? I wrenched on it until I realized that there was a nut hidden behind which moved easy, I later realized the reason that first nut didn't budge i.e welded!

All other nuts holding the bracket (and the pump w/reservoir) to the engine came off pretty easy. The power steering pump on the bracket then just wanted to fall down.

It is pretty easy to then sort of tilt it towards the pipe section behind the pump to remove the hoses. Mine were sort of loose so that probably explained why it might have leaked...

Now here comes the not so easy part, the pump is in the bracket and you need to remove the pulley if it is bent or something and even if just to remove it to put on your new pump w/reservoir in that bracket.

I bought a power steering remover from checkers since their loaner was out, it was 25.XX so I bought it.. another tool!

I didn't use the stupid screws to hold the sides of the pulley to the lip of the pulley since it would not tighten... instead used a c clamp to hold the 'jaws' onto the pulley lip. I then proceeded to press out the pulley from the pump. Worked in some lubricating oils to break the hold but it was on there tight...

Took a hammer and my socket wrench to the power steering pulley puller and persuaded it out... support the little arm from the puller. Work at it until it slips off... Damn thing was pressed on tight for what... 20 plus years.

I was too lazy to get my impact wrench!

Now the pulley is off!

Step TWO
--remove the bolts from the bracket... 20 plus years it seems since one came off easy but the others are stuck on tight. Time for impact wrench tomorrow.

Pretty simple so far the only problem is now getting the correct pulley. I bought one from checkers for a 1981 camaro w/ac since the pulley for my 1985 is listed at both checkers and autozone as a single belt pulley and not a dual like the one that is on my old pump. That pulley from checkers ended up being almost perfect except that the diameter is smaller. Not sure what that will do so going to return it and see if I can order the correct pulley from the dealership...

From looking at the directions to reinstall the pulley I will need to use the provided screw, washer and o-ring to I would guess to screw in the pulley.

Thought that was interesting...

Well that's my struggle for today!

 

A smaller pulley will just turn the pump a little faster. May require shorter belts, but, other than that, would be ok.

 

all i can say mr ploegi is why didnt you reply sooner...


already went to a junkyard and bought an unbent pulley that took me an hour to get out and just finished reinstalling all my accessories need to find one bolt then i can stop and turn it on.

 

That doesn't sound too bad. My car is my daily driver, so I need something done easy and quick...let us know how the pump holds up...

 

Went to buy a pizza and a hp printer cartridge about an hour and a half ago as I was testing out my car since I tightened all the bands, replaced the bolt/nut I lost on my ac.

So enjoying the drive as I went down litchfield road towards mcdowell as I hit that turn towards mcdowell and dysart the steering went really stiff on me and I had to muscle the car back into my lane.

I immediately said ****! And started driving to where I work at Lowe's and got into the parking lot. I drove in some circles thinking that maybe I could loosen it up (yup dumb but I figured maybe it was just acting up since I probably didnt bleed it and air it out like the instructions said).

My steering just went kaput in there and it was still turnable but the muscle power needed was just huge. Walked to Wal*Mart to buy some power steering fluid (they had none! they had some honda junk and some power steering leak stopper), ended up calling home for help.

Also discovered that as I waited for my bottles of power steering fluid to arrive that I found the leak point. The main pressure line not the rubber hose return line was the culprit. On the back of the power steering pump the connection was loose. Not sure but I might have been dumb enough to not have tightened it up really tight.

Got underneath with a really unsafe tire jack from my helps vehicle and tightened the connection up. I then filled the pump and turned the wheels trying to get the air out. I then drove home...

So lesson learned... tighten all your bolts and double check them!

Had I been going at any speed I would have been **** out of luck with the sheer stiffness of the wheel.

So also make sure you take care of any small leaks since losing steering control really sucked.

 

I definitely agree. This weekend, I was at our car clubs monthly meet in Columbia, SC, (about 1hr and 1/2 from my home) and my car died at an embanked drive through (low battery voltage) so we were pushing it out and since the car was off and no P/S I was forcing the sharp right turn out and all of a sudden.."pop" and my steering wheel literally popped off the turn shaft! I was like WTF! I guess I didn't tighten hard enough when I installed it over a year ago. So my friend pulled up his Camaro and we jump-started the car...I was able to loosely put the steering wheel back and we drove it to a Jiffy Lube and asked the guy to use the impact wrench to tighten it down... after that, no problems... scary stuff when you loose a steering wheel!