power steering pump

[coker6303]

My truck is almost impossible to turn at times when idling and either sitting still or barely rolling.

I know these trucks can have power steering issues but it is getting ridiculous. I'm even hearing a hydraulic squeal like it's going over a relief or something. Pump could be going out but it gives zero problems other than at idle.

Anything I can do to adjust the pump? put a smaller pully on it? etc?

yes I checked the fluid

Russ

 

[hondarider552]

How does the fluid look?

I flushed my power steering and it made a world of a difference.

 

[rgullett83]

the scrub radius of your larger tires will make big difference too. Its bad enough with stock wheels and tires.

 

[coker6303]

Fluid looked fine but i will order some amsoil or something and flush it out. is there a trick to flushing it out good?

Big tires suck and i only run 30psi too...lots of friction

 

[TeaBagger2006]

you got it easy..... i will be sending mine out to red head to have it rebuilt "better"

 

[coker6303]

^^^^^^^ talk to me bro!!!

 

[05greendmax]

dont even bother with changein the fluid i change mine 3 time still cant turn 265 i also changed the ps box on the frame still didnt fix the problem i need abetter pump

 

[coker6303]

Who makes a better pump?

 

[TeaBagger2006]

Google red head power steering. People claim that they're rebuilt box is much better than stock and is worth the upgrade

 

[coker6303]

On it, thanks

 

[coker6303]

Ok, may sound crazy but here's what I did to improve my steering.

After looking at my symptoms and thinking about how much worse it now that we are mid stride during the summer I decided to up the viscosity of the power steering fluid. As we all know, it is essentially a hydraulic pump supplying flow/pressure to the brake booster and gear box and ATF is a form of hyd. fluid with special additives.

Well I didn't have any 62wt hyd oil around or I would have used it to experiment but what I did was run to wal-mart and buy some of that Lucas ATF trans slip additive since I knew it was very viscous. I pumped a quart out of my system and put a quart of that additive in. Instant improvement in steering and the PS pump is much quieter! no more fluid whine and it improved my steering at low rpm and low speed.

I am going to flush the system and start fresh when I can, definitely going to put another quart of the lucas when I do.

What are yall's thoughts? Anyone done this before?