how long will a power steering pump without fluid last. the pump cant keep fluid long enough when its running to even bother. it just slings it everwhere while its running. i was wondering if it would last a fairly lenthy trip..90 miles or so. the shop im bringing it to that will replace the pump is gonna be that far from me..... i guess im wondering other than the steering being tough, what else will happen?

any takers on that ? lol



i can handle the tough steering. i had a 66 coupe in high school that didnt have it from the factory and i didnt mind it so bad. so long as i dont do any road courses in it .

 

I bought one of my ponies at an as is auction drove it home.
I first thought it was standard steering. After getting it home about 30 miles later I realized it was power steering.
I added fluid and wow the power came back to life but leaked I added stop leak with little success since it seemed to loose fluid and as it did you would get a louder whining sound.
I first thouht it was a high pressure hose But was wrong.

I got under it and watched standing still while the wife turned the wheel from left to right.

Stangely it would leak massively only on HARD left turns.
However there seemed to be NO leaks on right turns or while going straight .

It turned out that I needed a rack and pinion about 90 bucks at Auto Zone.

THough I must admit that that car still has a slight whine when turning the wheeel even after I got the 2.5 to 1 rack replaced. Maybe the pump to will go out someday. but so far so good. Atleast the whine is not loud like it used to be.


I guess the question to ask is where is the leak?

If it is in cracked hose than a hose clamp may shore it up?
long enough for your trip

Does it leak just sittng still?

Or maybe its only hard turns. LEFT or RIGHT?

Either way I say go for it.

most of the trip sounds like high way driving any way

 

well when i bought the car he said it had a leak...for a week or so it would slowly go down..id see a spot under it...its just been getting bigger and bigger. now its to the point where its just coming out and being blown everywhere under the hood on that corner so when its parked..it looks like its coming from everywhere. when its full it doesnt last the drive to work which is about six miles. right now its empty and theres no noise. it did make noise when it was low..like a growl common to fords. now its not noisy but...lol its like drivin the 66 again. the drivin will be all highway. being hard to steer doesnt bother me..i just dont want something to happen where it leaves me on the road before i make it there. a buddy suggested it might be the rack since he had to swap his too. everything is covered in it and its hard to tell. i know theres a drip from the pump so im leaning toward that the most. :scratch:

 

ford power steering pumps are notorious for being noisy right off the showroom floor (at least for our older fords) I'd get a new pump and rack and pinion ASAP

 

i dont think theres a problem with the rack and pinion on my car..its just the pump leaking like crazy

 

I'd second the suggestion to replace the pump and rack. If your 5.0L has a few miles on it (which most do by now) and the pump is bad, their may be metal shards or trash in the rack from the old pump. Just replacing the pump could only be a temporary fix if the trash get's into the new pump and eventually ruins it too. Then you are forced to replace the pump again along with the rack.

If you are into the PS system and replacing the pump, go ahead and replace the lines and rack too. Just my $.02

 

i made it to the shop...just kept adding fluid every so often. it was the pressure line that was leaking after all. didnt need to replace the pump. im glad to be back in action now lol...knock on wood !!

 

Great to hear it was an easy fix......It's alway a good feeling when your expecting the worse and it ends up not being the case.

 

Glad to hear you are back on the road!!