no power steering 99 f250?

serp belt, won't run without it very long. thanks dave

Take the drive belt off, remove the pressure line at the steering box and place the end into a clean bucket. If when you manually rotate the pump pulley in the correct direction, you should see PS fluid shoot out the end of the hose. If not, try removing the hose at the pump and rotate again, if this time fluid shoots out all over your engine, you have a blocked hose, if not... a bad pump. You can skip the first step and go straight to the second one if you don't mind PS fluid all over the engine compartment.

Razor

Thanks Razor, for the idea for checking the pump. I have never had to check one before, it was bad or it worked.

How often do the hoses become blocked? I haven't heard of it happening before. thanks dave

I wouldn't really know how often it happens but I imagine that if some debris fell into the pump through the resevoir fill opening, it could become wedged in the pressure line in such a way as to severly impede the fluid flow. Something like some bark or leaves from an overhead tree or a little piece of rubber or plastic that falls in when the cap is off during service or when checking the level. I guess the actual hose lining could also collapse causing a restriction too but I would imagine that in that case, you would see a rupture. I would probably suspect the pump as a primary problem but if you are like me, you want to be absolutely sure before spending the money and finding out it was just the hose. I guess, for that matter, you could always just take off the hose and blow compressed air through it to find out if it is restricted.

Good luck.

Razor