Bleeding steering gear box

[MaddieCycle]

Hi all.  '86 KC 4x4 just put in a reman (Cardone, bought at Napa) steering gear box.  Bled the power steering and it is not whining and the fluid level looks good. Have an odd situation where only when turning the wheel to the left while stopped, have initial resistance then it gives and moves fine.  No such problem moving to the right.  If I gently move to the left slowly, the resistance is minimal.  If I jolt to the left, it is stronger. Feels like there is a gas bubble still in there acting like a spring.  Hoping it is not something in the recirculating ball mechanism, I have no interest in pulling this box out and doing a warranty swap then re-install.  Maybe just try bleeding again? Not really an issue when moving, but wouldn't want to drive like this regularly without it resolved.

 

Anyone else had this?

[datzenmike]

To prevent excessive foaming when filling for the first time, the procedure for bleeding is to raise the wheels of the ground and at idle quickly turn lock to lock a couple of times. Shut off to avoid running more than you have to. Check reservoir level and top up. Repeat till reservoir level is constant. If you bled it and/or were driving it then there won't be any air trapped.

 

 With wheels off the ground and engine off turn the steering lock to lock. Is there still a tight area?

[MaddieCycle]

Thanks good point will check this weekend.  I don't believe there was but will go recheck and go through this.

[datzenmike]

It has to be the box but it may just be an adjustment.

[Charlie69]

Mikes proceedure is correct.  The last dry system I installed took a lot of cycles of Mike's procedure to finally get all the air out and then I still checked the fluid level daily for the next couple of weeks.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

One other trick is to turn the wheel to full lock and hold it there for a couple seconds. The fluid takes a second to catch up to the steering box movement and holding it at full lock allows it to bypass and bleed off more effectively. Do this in both directions with the engine off and then again with the engine running.

 

I use a pulley mounted on a spindle and then run it in a drill, then use a short belt to run the pump. This way I can run the pump more slowly than the engine can allowing for more precision in bleeding.

 

Once you have air that tuns into bubbles, you need to let it sit a while before you can attempt to bleed again, like overnight.

[MaddieCycle]

Put it back up in the air and the steering didn't really have a tight spot but in general felt a little choppy and tight through the entire turn-to-turn range.  I loosened the lash adjuster (turning lefty loosey) in 1/4 turn increments until it felt smooth through the range.  Put it back down and drove it a bit, still seems like it binds a bit when starting to turn left while stopped or moving a a crawl speed, but does seem a little better.  This is a remanufactured NAPA gearset. Maybe just needs to wear in a little?  How loose can I go with the lash?  Maybe my pump is failing? When I bought the truck and drove it home 150 miles and gave it a close once over it had a huge PS leak and the reservoir was very low.  I fixed it and it has worked well for 3000 miles but that was with the old box that was totally slush.

[Charlie69]

What you are descibing sounds like air is in the sytem.  Put the front of the truck on jack stands and try what Stroffregen suggested.  On mine I probaly went stop to stop 100 times and still had some air in the system that worked it way out over the next couple of weeks driving it.  I drive my trucks hard.

 

I Have now stripped off all the power steer from the 3 trucks I have left and will be modding in 2009 Nissan Versa electric power steering over this next winter.  I got tired of leaks and replacing hydralic parts.

[MaddieCycle]

Well a few hundred miles later this is no longer an issue, smooth and solid steering. I imagine the new gearbox just needed to break in.  This was a miserable job to do but very satisfying results and a nice complement to the complete front end rebuild I did last year.