1. Home
  2. General Ford Forum
  3. Leaky power steering pump

Leaky power steering pump

On a '95 Aerostar, that is. The same half-assed, half-plastic, noisy POS is (was?) used on many Ford products. My pump has seeped fluid for a couple of years, but now the seep has turned into a steady dribble. Makes for a really messy driveway, not to mention using a *lot* of fluid at two bucks a quart!

I'm sure the leak is at the high pressure port, on the large fitting that screws into the crappy plastic pump body. I'm also sure that the leak is *not* between that fitting and the smaller fitting (that screws into the large fitting) on the upper end of the high pressure hose that goes to the rack & pinion. The large fitting appears to have a thin fiber washer or gasket between it and the plastic body.

Now for the question: Neither Chilton nor Haynes manuals have *any* info about servicing the damned pump, other than "remove and replace". The manuals do say that a wrench must be used to prevent the large fitting from turning when screwing the smaller fitting into it. OK, so maybe that's to prevent stripping the threads or cracking the crappy plastic body. Can the large fitting simply be removed so the fiber washer/gasket can be replaced, or will removing the fitting cause something to fall to pieces inside the lousy pump?

Words of wisdom from those who actually know will be appreciated. Thanks for reading this far - I didn't intend to get so "wordy", but tried to make myself clear.

Thanks again, Ed Greeley

Reply to
Edward Greeley
Loading thread data ...

stick a new washer on it FOCTARD

hurc ast

Reply to
  whose ya daddy 96

When mine was leaking like that it was the BIG O-ring that seals the plastic body to the metal insides. The only thing that holds the plastic body on is the big nut that the high pressure fitting goes into. Go to FORD or AUTOZONE and buy a rebuild kit for $15 and it will have the two washers you actually need to replace (and a bunch of others if you want to rebuild the innards). You do have to pull the pump off to take the thing apart to put the big O ring in.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

Thanks for the clue, Ashton. I got the seal kit from Advance Auto Parts for $14.96 + tax. I was pretty sure that the pump was not leaking at the plastic reservoir-to-metal body joint, so I didn't bother taking the pump out to replace the huge "O" ring. I'm a firm believer in the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. Just unscrewed the large, high-pressure port fitting and replaced the "O" rings on it. It turned out that what I thought was a fiber washer peeking out from under the fitting was actually the larger of the two "O" rings. Put it back together, drove the sucker about 50 miles, and - no more leak! It would have been nice to know the sizes of the two "O" rings that fitting needed so I could have just bought the rings instead of the whole kit. It's worth it, though, not to have the damned fluid dribbling all over my (and everyone else's) driveway. I think the main problem was caused by the inner "O" ring on the port fitting because although it was not "crispy", it had lost most of its resilience.

Thanks again, Ed Greeley

Ashton Crusher wrote:

Reply to
Edward Greeley

ED, FYI. If your car is a FWD vehicle like a Taurus or Windstar, clean the area below the pump really well. The fluid leaks and runs down onto the motor mount and AC lines and degrades the rubber. This is the main cause of broken front mounts and failed AC compresor manifold lines.

Glad you fixed your leak, Regards, Tom.

Reply to
Tom Adkins

Me too and that's what I did the first time. But in my case it was the big O-ring so I rented the pulley puller from autozone and took it off. That finally stopped the leak. Gave me the chance to redo one of the hose fittings that was starting to leak too. Ground off the crimp fitting and put a radiator clamp on it.

Just unscrewed the large,

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.