Hello! When I’m steering, the power steering seems to ‘leap’ as I’m turning the wheel. It’s got fluid and a good belt. Does it need to be rebuilt/replaced? I was driving today and she surprised me a bit which wasn’t as much fun and briefly gave me an ‘oh crap’ moment
As always, and insight you have is much appreciated!
By leaping do you mean it kinda over steers when you turn? My car does this also and I wasn’t sure why. I rebuilt the control valve and cylinder myself years back as part of my restoration. I was thinking (hoping) something just needs readjustment.
I think so… For example, it feels ok when starting to turn, left or right, but then you get to a certain spot and instead of continuing the smooth albeit ‘loose old car’ steering it suddenly slips/jumps and the car lurches in that direction.
Sounds like the gear box is set up too tight. Endplay can only be set in the center or straight ahead position.
Hmm… If you did work on the system recently, did you burp all the air out of the system afterwards?
Yeah, mine did that with air in the system after pump rebuild. I thought my newly rebuilt pump had issues, but I just needed to turn steering wheel from stop to stop a few times to purge the air bubbles.
It’s been a few years but not many miles since replacing the piston and hydraulic lines under the car. I thought? I bled it properly back then but it’s totally possible it’s still got air trapped. I’ll have to give that a try to eliminate the variable. Thanks guys!
Burping is fairly easy ~ just cycle the steering wheel stop-to-stop several times. Or you can take it to a large empty parking lot and do a bunch of figure-eights.
Good luck!
If you are at a stop and turn the wheel does the force to turn the wheel change? It should be about the same stop to stop either direction. If it is it is not the power assist. If you hit a hard spot it likely either a problem with the ram or a hose getting kinked. Could also be a problem with the steering box or something binding in the steering linkage.
More likely you have a suspension or steering linkage problem. I’d get the suspension checked out very carefully by someone that knows what they are doing. If all good make sure the alignment is right.
Seems to me the indicators point toward the valve slightly sticking. There are spool valves that must move freely. Most likely this is not happening, thus the issues while turning.