1982 steering control valve
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
From: Huntley Il.
1982 steering control valve
Has any one out there ever changed a power steering contrl valve on an 80-82...mine is leaking profusly...dont know if its a line or the whole valve...all I do know is that Im losing the whole bottle in about 2-weeks at a static sit..any suggestions..BW
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,944
Likes: 22
From: Yooperville MI
First, go under the car and pinpoint where the leak is. If you look at the valve, you'll see that it has 2 castings bolted together in the center. The casting half with the zerk fitting contains chassis grease to lube the ball stud on the top, the other half contains power steering fluid under pressure from the pump which provides power assist. There is an internal seal where the 2 housings bolt together which prevents p/s fluid from getting into the grease side of the housing. If your leak is p/s fluid, fluid is probably getting past the seal and coming out of the ball stud area on top which is in the grease side of the valve.
Rebuild kits are available as well as rebuilt and new valves. They are not real difficult to rebuild, however there are a lot of small parts inside and as long as you pay attention during disassembly and reassemble the valve correctly it will work, provided the spool and housing are not badly worn. There are some free tech materials available at tjis link in case you don't have a GM manual.......... http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/?page_id=4
Rebuild kits are available as well as rebuilt and new valves. They are not real difficult to rebuild, however there are a lot of small parts inside and as long as you pay attention during disassembly and reassemble the valve correctly it will work, provided the spool and housing are not badly worn. There are some free tech materials available at tjis link in case you don't have a GM manual.......... http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/?page_id=4
Team Owner
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 37,637
Likes: 3,116
From: Crossville TN
The leaks are telling you that "it's time to rebuild/reseal" the whole power steering system. The worst thing you could do is just repair the part(s) that are leaking badly now. The whole system is old and all the seals are significantly worn. And, once you get down there and work on that oil, nasty mess, you don't want to have to do it again! Rebuilding the pump and valve and replacing the lines is an easy (but messy) job. The worst part is cleaning up the junk from the parts once you remove them. This is one of those jobs that it pays to do it yourself. A rebuild kit for the valve is less than $20 and is just a few seals. The pump has a couple of seals and a big O-ring. Not that big of a deal, and service shops charge a bundle for doing the same thing.
