Power Steering Problems

[Sigmund79]

Hello! I am relatively new to the forum and to fixing stuff on my own. Here is my problem and I would love to hear any input you may have. I did a search there was some stuff but I think this is a a bit bigger problem.

1992 Jeep Cherokee Lerado 6cyl 4.0L AT

Here is what happened in detail

Around 3 weeks ago I tightend my serpentine belt to fix a whinning sound. Worked Great! Sound went away Jeep runs Great.

Last weekend I am driving all of the sudden I hear a funny sound coming from the engine, I am in traffic so need to go a little further to pull over when I do there is smoke from the engine and my temp is rising! Uh oh. So I get the jeep to the side of the road and power down immediatly.

Quick inspection of the engine reveals snapped serpentine belt. By snapped I mean clean across not frayed. That is fine it was 3 years old anyways I probably should have replaced it instead of tightening but it looked good enough. Oh well so I get it home and get a new belt on everything tightened up and such.

Start the engine sounds loud and rattly but I know the tension is good so I move the wheel and I get a VERY loud hydraulic sound coming whenever I turn the wheel (a bit like a bobcat) I powered down and checked the power steering resivoir and much to my confusion found it full to the top and the liquid frothy. I did remember seeing some fluid leaking out of the top when I was replacing the belt. So my question is didi I totally f up my jeep?


After all of my rambling if anyone is still left reading let me know if you have any ideas.

Thanks!

-Siggy

 

[old_man]

Belts do tend to fail like you said. A bad pump can hasten it. Froth in the PS res say you have air in your lines. Jack up the front and put both sides on jack stands. Start the engine and rotate the steering wheel from lock to lock about a dozen times. In most cases this will bleed the air. If it still keeps whining, you may have a defective pump. Did it run dry before?

Excessive tension on the belt can cause a premature bearing failure at each pulley. The most common failure is either the water pump or the alternator, but PS pumps are not imune.

 

[rockwerks]

Belts do tend to fail like you said. A bad pump can hasten it. Froth in the PS res say you have air in your lines. Jack up the front and put both sides on jack stands. Start the engine and rotate the steering wheel from lock to lock about a dozen times. In most cases this will bleed the air. If it still keeps whining, you may have a defective pump. Did it run dry before?

Excessive tension on the belt can cause a premature bearing failure at each pulley. The most common failure is either the water pump or the alternator, but PS pumps are not imune.

right on as usual. The belt does not need to be as tight as most think and an overtighten one will wipe out water pump, idler bearings, etc. when correctly tensioned you should be able to push the belt down and touch itself where it passes over the water pump across to the power steeriing pump.

 

[Sigmund79]

Thanks for the tips I will go check it out today. I am also getting belt guage from NAPA tomorrow so I can check the tension accuratly I hate "eyeballing" things. I think my idler pully also got toasted as I the bearing cover from the backside is loose and I can see the bearings. I will be replacing that also. I just hope all of the rest of my pully bearings are not hosed. I do not believe it ran dry.

I am going to take the following steps.
1) Replace Idler Pully
2) Check tension of belt with Guage
3) Try "getting the air" out of power steering system.

I will post when I get those things done and let you all know how it worked.

Hopefully this will take care of it.

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[Sigmund79]

I think I almost have er licked.

Idler Pully - Missing 3 ball bearings, Replaced
Belt Tension - Guage in tomorrow to check
"Blead" The power steering pump seems to have quited down.

the whole rig has quited down. =D

I will be checking the tension tomorrow and making sure all is good!

Thanks for the help!

Siggy!

Now time to start making my "stock" jeep into a nice offroad rig.