Steering rack and steering pump leak

[Razor61]

41 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

You do have another car to use  while all this is going on ? 

Malc 

Yep, an IS250 which is the Mrs car. I may need to catch the train or bus to work a few days in the next few weeks but it's no big deal.
Plan is to get the car going again before the Christmas, I have the week before Christmas off work, the pump seal kit is on back order and won't arrive until early/mid December so I'm stuck until then. I would have done the pump before now if I had got the seal kit but that's life.

[Razor61]

Power steering pump is disassembled, struggled to get the bearing and shaft out with a slide hammer so I fabricated a puller with angled steel and some home made shims.
Drilled and tapped a hole in the middle to screw on the shaft and fixed into place with the shaft nut, measured and drilled/tapped 2 more holes for 2 bolts with a pointed end to line up with the shims. Gradually wound down the 2 x pointed bolts one at a time and I heard the 'pop' when the bearing released. kept going then rearranged the shims and added 2 x more to pull the bearing and shaft out completely (the alignment of the bolts wasn't perfect). I hope that makes sense and a pic of home made 'puller' is below (before I realigned the shims and added 2 more)
Also a picture of all the components, I still need to tap out the front oil seal.
Over the weekend I'll rebuild the pump and fit it back into the car and reassemble everything.

@Steve (steve2006), I managed the job in the end. It was really bugging me that I couldn't get the bearing and shaft out myself so had another go at it last night.

[Malc1]

" the nuts been shafted and lost his bearings "  ... you're making a great job of all this ...  but the analogies keep a'coming 😂

Well done whatever ....  your perseverance astounds ! 👍

Malc

[Razor61]

I thought I was well and truly 'shafted' when I couldn't get the bearing out😄
The leak on the pump wasn't really bad, this job started as 'I'll order the bits, rebuild the pump, all will be good and is a straightforward job' but of course things don't work out that way.
Once you notice something leaking, however slight, it has to be fixed, especially the pump above the alternator.

[Razor61]

The rebuilt pump is in the car and working fine, there was a very small leak from the 'power up steering valve' thing but I nipped it up more and no more leak.
Before I put the drive belt on and started the car, I flushed the old fluid out pretty well and it's all nice and 'red' now.
The way I flushed it was similar to the methods documented elsewhere but I didn't start and stop the car and run the pump. I just turned the steering lock to lock and flushed out the old fluid. I thought I'd try doing it without starting and shutting off the car and risk fluid spurting everywhere. I'm happy with the result and it took just over a litre of fluid on my car but the reservoir and pump were empty and clean so I'd guess 2 - 4 litres to flush another car with manky fluid. The fluid that came out was very dark and definitely not red.

I did order a new pump from Amayama when I was struggling to get the bearing out and it arrived yesterday. For info it came with the return tube/bracket assembly fitted, I thought that was separate, so all that's needed is to fit the new 'power up steering valve' thing I have.
The opening for the 'power up steering valve' thing is blanked off with a bolt so I may decide to do away with it. Not sure if it's 'sealed' with the bolt or it's just for transit but if was just for transit it would be a plastic bung.
I still have the slight steering rack to sort so the plan is to keep the rebuilt pump in the car until spring/summer when the weather is better, take the rack out, send the rack for a rebuild, install the rebuilt rack and fit the new pump.

[Razor61]

Regarding rebuilding the pump and the O rings kit which may be useful to someone doing the same job.
The gasket kit part# 04446-30173 contains everything you need to replace all the O rings, oil seal, IAC (idle Air Control) valve seat, circlip/snap rings etc.
Bearing is separate - part# 90363-17017 and it's up to you if you replace it or not. I took the view that I was doing everything else so replaced the bearing as well. In hindsight I would have left the original in because there was nothing wrong with it and the little snap ring on the pump shaft is a little #### to get on.
Most of it is obvious which O rings go where by comparing the size and thickness of the O ring removed compared to the new O ring.
There was one O ring I couldn't figure out where it was in the pump to begin with and it wasn't mentioned in the guides on lexls.com or Planet Soarer that I could see, it's the O ring with the red arrow in the Diagram below.
This O ring goes inside the recess on the Side Front Plate which faces the front of the pump and is difficult to see because the Side Front Plate is black in colour, even though I cleaned everything. I prodded in the recess on the Side Front Plate with a pick to find anything rubber and found it, using the sharp point of a craft type knife thin blade I got it out being very careful. This means that there are 2 x O rings on the Side Front Plate so more force is needed to press the Side Front Plate into the pump housing.
Removing the O rings from the Side plates needs to done very carefully with a craft type knife thin blade, I gently pressed it onto the O ring at an angle across the O ring and gap and then 'flicked' out the O ring once it was cut through enough.
The gasket kit O rings for the side plates and rear bracket are packaged separately, one pack with the 2 x side plate O rings (Green arrow in the diagram) and one pack with the Rear Bracket O ring (Blue arrow in the diagram)
The Pressure Port Union and Spring Seat O rings are similar, iirc the Pressure Port Union O ring is the thinner one.

Assembly, all done carefully and liberal amounts of fluid:

I installed the 2 x new O rings onto the Side Front Plate
Refitted the long guide pin
Refitted the Side Front Plate with the new O rings fitted, pressed it in by hand a bit to level/line it up.
Refitted the short guide pin
Refitted the 'Ring, Cam' without the rotor and vanes (I chose to do this but the rotor and vanes can be fitted at this point)
Refitted the rear side plate WITHOUT the O ring for easy removal
Refitted the rear wave washer
Refitted the rear bracket WITHOUT the O ring for easy removal
Gradually tightened the rear bracket down with 2 opposite side bolts which pressed the Side Front Plate into the pump housing
Removed the rear bracket, rear wave washer, rear side plate and checked that the Side Front Plate was pressed in ok.
Installed the Rotor
Installed the vane 'plates', rounded edge to the outside
Installed the rear side plate with new O ring
Installed the rear wave washer 
Refitted the rear bracket with new O ring
Torqued bolts to 39nm
Refitted the rest of the stuff and O rings.

I hope that makes sense and maybe helps someone else doing this job and this is a link below for a video where a guy called Arnold rebuilds his power steering pump on an LS400, he didn't use the gasket kit but is a useful video nonetheless plus there are more videos on what he has done to his early LS400.

https://youtu.be/JeB8aVtuMLM?si=HCruKqEMEcQmgq7q

I sort of enjoyed rebuilding the pump myself and didn't want to fail with it after all the pain of getting the pump out in the first place but, again in hindsight, I would have bought the gasket kit and bearing then took it to the pump specialist to do the rebuild or found an engineering/mechanic shop to help me to do it. I was a bit 'bl00dy minded' about it to be honest and didn't want to seek any help.

[Malc1]

Well done 

Expert for your next one in about 200k miles 👏

Malc 

[Razor61]

3 hours ago, Malc1 said:

Well done 

Expert for your next one in about 200k miles 👏

Malc 

Thanks, it was interesting to take the pump apart and you can then see where and how the pump could leak. No leak is good but I think the worse place to leak is the O ring on the rear which is directly above the rear of the alternator were the electronic bits are.
The reservoir O ring wasn’t leaking on mine, I thought it was but it wasn’t.
Just a ‘theory’ of mine but I suspect the earlier type with the reservoir directly on the pump with little or no support is more likely to leak at that O ring due to the weight of the reservoir, moving around and wearing or dislodging the O ring somehow, it just gives way and then a lot of fluid dumps itself on the alternator. The later type maybe has a thicker stronger bracket plus the reservoir is remote to the pump connected with a hose so doesn’t have the weight on it. Just a theory though.

 

 

[Razor61]

Just thinking that if anyone needs their pump rebuilt I’d be happy to help and do the job, if you trust me to do it, and if anyone needs or would like their power steering fluid flushed and new fluid I’d be happy to do it as well.
After all the work on mine I have a ‘method’ for doing both without any drama😉
I’m thinking about rebuilding the steering rack myself, I have a 97 steering rack to practice on. It may be ok on my car but the solenoid on the pressure control valve assembly is different, checked this morning after I checked the pump for leaks again (it’s nice and dry). Then cleaned the undertray to remove the bits of steering fluid grime and re fitted.

 

[Razor61]

Just some more info about the steering pump, I thought the pump itself was the same on the 94-97 and 97-2000 with only the reservoir bracket different but after watching the video below it seems the rear bracket mounting is different as well.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysvFhViFtqo

[Razor61]

Today I fitted the new steering pump I bought also new air control valve, hose and clips.
No leaks for 5 weeks and approx 500 miles after the pump rebuild so thought I was ok……….then Thursday morning the steering pump made a bad noise. Left the car at home and drove the IS250 to work. Thursday evening checked the fluid and it was very low, refilled/topped up and noise gone but there was some steering fluid on the drive but not a lot. I checked the fluid level on Friday morning and all good so drove the car to work and planned to fit new pump on Saturday.
This morning when I started the job there was a lot more steering fluid on the drive so it had got a lot worse and when the under tray was removed it wasn’t exactly clean.
I did rebuild the pump as described in this post but after looking at it on the car it had sprung a leak on the flow control O ring. Also the air control valve itself was leaking, not where it fits to the pump. Pump body itself was not leaking though where it was leaking before.
When rebuilding the pump I forgot to install the flow control valve and spring so had to remove the plug thing, fit the bits and refit, maybe the O ring was damaged doing this again or the pump had corrosion and didn’t seal correctly. I’ll have a look at the old pump tomorrow and ‘investigate’

[Razor61]

As said I’ve had a look at the rebuilt pump and I made a mistake🤨😠
The flow control seat/plunger thing wasn’t secured by the Circlip correctly, Circlip wasn’t in the internal groove correctly to hold the plunger where it should be. I noticed the end of the plunger wasn’t flush with the pump body and was sticking out 2 or 3mm. As soon as I touched the circlip it sprung out and went flying, found it at the other side of the garage though. Pushed the plunger in to where it should be and installed the circlip correctly. I probably installed it correctly the first time but then removed it again because I forgot to install the spring and didn’t install it correctly the second time while cursing to myself that I forgot the spring the first time.
I did check this part for leaks for the first week or so and nothing was leaking, I guess that after 5 weeks and hundreds of miles the plunger thing worked it’s way out to a point where the O ring was not where it should be to seal and fluid leaked past. The air valve wasn’t leaking, it was fluid running down from the flow control thing at the top.
I was going to fit the new pump anyway but was going to do it when sorting out the steering rack, this brought the job forward.
I think I was lucky that the plunger didn’t pop out completely and then ‘catastrophic steering failure’……………..
 

[Malc1]

Well done 👍 

Malc 

[hockeyedwards]

I hate c-clips with a passion.

Well done on your investigation, diagnostic and repair 🙂

[Razor61]

1 hour ago, Malc1 said:

Well done 👍 

Malc 

Thanks, I was a bit miffed to be honest but you live and learn.

[Razor61]

2 hours ago, hockeyedwards said:

I hate c-clips with a passion.

Well done on your investigation, diagnostic and repair 🙂

Thanks and yes c-clips are a pain. I’ll buy another O ring, c-clip and fit them, it’s been in and out too many times. What I’ll do with it then I don’t know, maybe put it on Facebook or eBay or keep it as a spare just in case. It must be worth a few quid to someone.