Power Steering problem, can use some input on whats going on.

My build is done except this problem so I'm hoping some members might have seen this before or might have some suggestions on why my power steering pump is doing this. Before I started my build the power steering seemed to work just fine and the pump and box I believe are original to the car since the car only had 49,000 miles on it when I bought it and 56,000 when I parked it. When I tore down my car I was careful to plug the inlets and hoses to prevent any junk getting in either part. I cleaned up my pump (Federal style) and replaced the tank seals and repainted it ready for install.
The problem I've run into is when I filled it and fired my engine up for the first time a couple of weeks ago when I turned the steering wheel I had a normal power steering response from the steering wheel but the pump had belched out a bunch of fluid past the cap. At first I just thought the box had a lot of air in it and that was the cause so I topped it up again and took it for a couple of short drives to set up the carb. I found after those drives it again had dumped the fluid out the top and I would end up with about half a tank remaining. After running the engine quite a bit getting the carb setup and everything getting hot and cooling down I was also noticing a small puddle of drips under the pump so dried it and watched it when it was hot an noticed what I believe was a small leak out the front shaft so since I had purchased a rebuilt pump as a backup I changed it out on Sunday. Filled this one to the bottom of the neck and on startup this one also belched a bunch of fluid out the top leaving about the same a little over half a tank but this time I have no power steering. I'm lost on what I should try next and what could be the problem, any insight or procedure I should try would be much appreciated,

Thanks, Danny

Do you have instructions for installing a new pump? You may not since you are using your old one. The instructions say you MUST flush your old system of all old fluid, or the warranty will be void. They also suggest cranking the engine in short bursts to circulate fluid and allow trapped air to go the reservoir. I suggest re-flushing your system to make sure all dirt and trapped air are gone.

and to add , don't fill the pump all the way. half full , start car , turn wheel lock to lock about 5 times , add a little more fluid , lock to lock again , let the fluid get hot , add to full Mark hot. what you are doing is purging air. if it is leaking , it's probably sucking air as well.

That's good advice fella's, even thou the steering box was pretty empty of fluid from all the turning during re-assembly of the front end I could do a better job of flushing it, I'll do that tomorrow.

Bulldozer said:

and to add , don't fill the pump all the way. half full , start car , turn wheel lock to lock about 5 times , add a little more fluid , lock to lock again , let the fluid get hot , add to full Mark hot. what you are doing is purging air. if it is leaking , it's probably sucking air as well.

Click to expand...

This!!

Get the front tires off the ground too, it puts less stress on the system while burping.

Don't be in a hurry to rotate the steering wheel during bleeding. If the pump sucks air, it will just take longer.
I have had no luck with the Federal pumps. Even after the system is bled, the few I have tried just could not keep up at low-rpm, and/or they overheated the fluid at higher rpms. I finally broke down and installed a Saginaw, and no more problems.

OK guys it time for me to fess up and put on the dummy hat, I couldn't figure out why there was nothing coming out the high pressure side so the only thing left to do was pull the pump and take the reservoir off to see if something is blocking the pickup. Embarrisingyly I found the plug still there, good news is now everything flushed and runs fine, bad news is that's a senior moment, lol, which are a bit more common these days! Thanks for the attempt to help me out guys, much appreciated.