the great him
Elite Member
so i have none, as in no power steering in my runner. its been this way sense thursday just after i got stuck. it was fine for the most part up in the snow but on the drive home nothing... heres where it gets funny. at first i thought it was just the low tires, so no biggie, aired them back up, still had the problem -hard steering. so then i went and bought some atf, thinking i was just supper low(but i didnt have the low PS pump sound/whine. so i got a little mechanical pump and pumped out what was in the res. -it was all dirty and dark brown, and had small metal flake in it(odd i thought). anyhow so refilled while having the wife muscle the wheel back and forth for me to try and circulate the new fluid... -we went through about 3qts of atf. the pump was moving the fluid around in the system, cause as id pump it out i was getting old dirty fluid, no the new fresh stuff i just poured in.... but still it was a bear to turn the wheel. then i thought maybe i just had a blockage in the line. so i put about 100 miles on it this weekend and no change in the steering at all, still no power assist. also their is no squeel/whine or sound of strain from the pump like you get when you turn your wheel to lock and try to turn it further. so that leads my to think their is no "blockage" in the system as they pump would give off the whine as its trying to push the fluid through the system. at the same time i know the fluid is circulating through the system cause now after 3 new qts of aft, the system is now a dirty dark red(still has the fine metal flakes) and not a brown color as before. i dont think its the rack, i know i have had a small leak for some time in the rack, that has not gotten bigger, or changed. still weeps fluid.
im so stumped as to what this could be, so any thoughts or advice will be helpful. thanks guys
im so stumped as to what this could be, so any thoughts or advice will be helpful. thanks guys