Am I the only one having problems with power steering pumps? I have been through 3 pumps, 2 rebuilt and 1 new GM in under 2 years. They either leak, whine or the nose that the pulley attaches to becomes loose or just comes off. It is not the installation. Pulleys are properly aligned and the belt flex is correct. I am now about to put my fourth PS pump on my 68 427/390. A real PITA.

I have been dealing with Justin at ZIP Products. He advised that there are no new GM PS pumps available. They will fix the one I have now. Their customer service is top shelf. I am just frustrated to have to do this job for the 4th time

 

My pump was leaking, so when the engine was out for rebuild I took the opportunity to have it rebuilt. After firing the engine up, I could not get the pump to provide pressure...then it blew fluid alll over the engine compartment. Took it out, sent it back, put it back in...so far, so good. I know what you mean, it is a PITA to wrestle them out and back in again.

 

G'day,

Why not look up www.borgeson.com? I'm sure that they will have one for you and more than likely it will come with a warranty.

Buy American!

Regards from Down Under

aussiejohn

 

I just ordered one locally at my neighborhood Car Quest. Will be in tomorrow morning. I guess I just don't want to get another one from ZIP since I have had so many problems. At least if I deal locally I don't have to keep shipping them back and forth.

 

see if you can get a quality rebuild kit and rebuild yourself? then you no its done right

 

I went through a number of re-built pumps that I rejected even before they were installed (no need to mention names). I ended up purchasing a rebuilt pump from A1-Cardone and re-using my original pump housing. I heard some good things about Cardone on this forum so went that direction. In addition when I spoke to my local NAPA they said Cardone could rebuild my original if it was sent to them. You can also get a rebuilt pump with the housing from Cardone if you prefer to not reuse your original housing. Good luck.

 

3 in 2 years, hard to believe you got 3 bad pumps. I've had pretty good luck with rebuild kits on PS pumps from NAPA. I have to borrow the correct pulley puller. If your pulley is coming off perhaps a little thread lock? Use the stuff that allows you to remove part later, blue? Maybe a problem with cylinder, valve, hose, fluid? Maybe the pulley is not quite true?

 

Well this is baffling to us too, we have not been having any issues with the pump other than once in awhile you will get a bad. He got two rebuilds and then a brand new GM pump. Our rebuilt pumps are made in the USA not overseas. As far as the Napa and Cardone, which is who builds them for Napa. Good luck, the one I had from them in my dually almost got us killed when it came apart. The one ton trucks have hydroboost, so your brakes depend on the ps pump for pressure. I had a pallet of brake rotors in the bed and the shaft of the pump snapped on a pump that was 2 weeks old. I no longer had brakes or power steering, it was an experience.
Eventhough you purchased a pump from Napa, I would still like to see the pump that came off, if you could take a picture of the whole setup before you remove anything, but I would like to pull the pump apart and see what is failing.
Thanks
Justin

 

You didn't hook up the hoses to the wrong fittings, did you? Easy to do. I would have thought you would just get erratic behavior from the system, but it might cause an overpressure situation. Check the AIM or the Chevy "Chassis Service Manual" for correct hose routing.

 

Justin, I have taken pictures of the setup in the car and will forward them to you. Regarding the pump I am removing: I had to pay a core fee for the one I just purchased and need to return it to them. I may take a look inside and see what is going on. I can tell you that the nose/shaft to which the pulley attaches has so much play it has worn the belts out. I was fortunate to catch it before it grenaded. It is making alot of noise as well. My guess is that the driveshaft bushing is the problem.

I appreciate your interest and involvement, but I suspect anyone in my position would seek an alternate source for the PS pump.

 

No, I have the AIM and the hoses are where they should be. I'm beginning to think there is a little black cloud following me and this car around.

 

The way that the pump is supposed to be manufactured says that the driveshaft bushing is pressed into the pump housing and then it is honed with respect to some dowel pins that hold the pump ring and plates. I doubt that any company that remanufactures a Saginaw pump actually does that process.

Also there is a groove in the driveshaft bushing. The bushing should be assembled so that the groove is in line with the direction of the pull of the drive belt. This puts that major amount of lubrication in line with the force of the drive belt. Installing the bushing in the correct orientation should be a no-brainer. Unless the company that is doing the rebuilding doesn't even know how critical it is to have the lubrication groove correctly orientated.

Now the groove doesn't have to be exactly in line with the drive belt pull. But is shouldn't be on the opposite side!

It is normal to have a slight amount of in-out motion of the driveshaft. But you should not have any detectable side to side play. (You obviously have to remove the belt to check.)

I don't have any direct information on your drive belt positions. From your description they seem correct. There is a spec for the Corvette pump that reads as follows:
If you were to look at the pump from the driveshaft side, with the reservoir filler neck at 12 o'clock, the sum of your two drive belt pulls should be somewhere between that 12 o'clock position and all the way around CCW to the 4 o'clock position. (I think that your two belts are pulling together to meet this spec.) Here is a rather poor scan of the pump with the belt pull direction called out.

So the next question is whether or not the lubrication groove in the bushing was assembled in that same pull direction or not. If the groove is somewhere between 1 o'clock and 4 o'clock there will not be sufficient lubrication.

You have to disassemble the pump and remove the driveshaft in order to determine if the lubrication groove is correct or not. I don't know if you want to perform your own diagnosis or not.

Wish that I was of more help.

 

Jim, Thanks for your reply to my e-mail. I think I would feel alot better with you in my garage right now . I will be going at it at 5 PM. Really looking forward to it

 

I put the new PS pump on last night. 4 hours and a couple of bloody knuckles. I love big blocks, but they don't leave much room to maneuver.

The driveshaft bushing/bearing was the problem on the old pump. The shaft on which the pulley rides was wobbling both laterally and way too much in and out.

I have decided to bring the old pump to Car Quest to recover my core fee. If I ship it back to ZIP I forfeit my core charge and have to pay to ship it. Even if ZIP rebuilds it, I don't want it based on this history. I hope this is the last time I need to do this

This is not a bash ZIP thread. Great people, excellent customer service-----LOUSY PS PUMPS (at least every one that I got).

 

I understand, but I doubt your troubles are over. Unless your luck is just really that bad. I can count how many pumps I have had to warranty probably on one hand not including you over the last 5 years, and we sell allot of pumps. You had two rebuilds that were rebuilt by Lonestar in TX, and now a new GM pump. What I don't understand it you WANT a Cardone. I have never had a pump fail due to anything then just plain wearing out because of mileage except for a Cardone pump that almost got me killed. I would drive without power steering before I put that one. I don't mean to sound negative on them, but every component I have ever gotten from Cardone has failed, from PS pumps to ECM's they rebuild. They do too much stuff and I think the quality lacks when you do that.

 

I don't understand how you can trash Cardone based on one experience you had. And on top of that the original poster never said he was getting a Cardone unit. He said he was going to Car Quest for a replacement pump. I suggest you try doing a search on this forum for "Cardone" I think the collective positive responses from forum members offer a more realistic opinion of their products.

 

I have never had a problem with A-1 Cardone products and sold the complete line of there remanufactured parts. If there was ever a warranty problem it was always taken care of the same or next day. And 99% of those problems happened by customers buying the wrong part that was suggested by a neighbor or friend. So you give them another part. They also custom build a customers original. You should be comfortable in knowing A 1 Cardone is a National brand selling parts for all cars including Corvettes found in most local parts stores....

 

I never said that I was buying a Cardone. Unless you know something that I don't about who manufactures the pumps for Car Quest. I don't know who does their PS pumps. It was time for a change at any rate. With my luck this won't work either. I will seriously consider going to a manual steering configuration at that point. I am not a fan of power steering anyway. To me it's just another belt to take away horsepower and more parts to break/leak. This car just happened to be equipped with power steering.