Diagnosing no PS

[The_Jeff]

Just brought home a 94 dodge dakota 3.9 2wd with 145k.

Power steering is completely inoperative.

Belt is tight; fluid at the right level. No weird noises or horrendous leaks.

My inclination is to throw a pump on it, hoping it's the pump and not the rack & pinion.

Any good ways to diagnose this system? Was thinking of cracking a high pressure line open; if it sprays everywhere, the pump is good.

AA has my pump but there's some assembly required... reservoir and pulley. What a hassle, but as cheap as the junkyard with coupon.

 

[Trav]

Could well be a bad pressure relief valve in the pump.Damage in the rack usually results in a leak into the tie rod boots.
You can pressure test them but that is a PITA and you need the tester.
Cracking the pressure line is one idea that may tell you if the pump is at least making pressure.
Pull the return and see if there is good flow coming back.
Weak return flow is a good indicator of a bad pump.

Edit: If the AA rebuilt is a Cardone be prepared to change it a few times unless you get real lucky as the quality is horrible.

 

[sciphi]

The AA remans up here may be Fenco. Not sure if they're affiliated with Cardone or not. My local AA is showing a Fenco reman. There's a Fenco reman PS pump on my Buick that works okay, if a bit loud. Flushing it with ATF instead of PSF made it quieter.

 

[exranger06]

My girlfriend's PT Cruiser had the same problem a few months ago. She was driving home, all of a sudden lost PS. The shop replaced the rack and it didn't solve the problem (under warranty thank God!) so then they replaced the PS pump. That fixed it.

 

[The_Jeff]

Going with the Fenco. We'll see.

 

[Trav]

WOW big change at AA! Most of the old Cardone stuff is gone.
Fenco is okay i have used them before without any trouble.
Good riddance to the Cardone bout time!

 

[mechanicx]

I had to take back some Cardone stuff that failed and AA replaced them with Fenco. Cardone use to be decent.

 

[mechtech2]

You wanna throw parts at it and hope to get lucky?
Maybe...

See about taking it to a pro that can test it and tell you exactly what is up.

 

[The_Jeff]

This is the "mechanical tricks" section not the "take it to a pro" section.

Incidentally, revving to 3000 RPM gives a slight assist.

 

[The_Jeff]

It was the pump. Had good power steering for 20 seconds then my old pulley on new pump decided it was taking off.

That pulley was on tiiiiight on the old pump but loosey goosey on the new one. They sell pulleys... for $20.

Stupid design has a huge metal bracket go through the middle of the pump, so you have to take the pulley off the front and the reservoir off the back to replace the pump. I have some choice words for Mr Iacocca... we never should have bailed them out (in 1979!!!)