NJ Power Steer Pump Noisy & Not operating Correctly

[03gallagherj]

I own a 1995 2.8 TD 4M40T NJ Paj. Recently i went for a bit of a full on mud run with the old girl and during the run i found the steering got a little heavy assumed it was the mud and ruts but still pulled off onto tarmac to check the steering. it seemed the power steer had thrown a belt but being a gear driven model this wasnt possible.

Checked the power steer fluid and it was full a few days earlier and has never lost fluid in the past but checking it after the mud run it was on min and showed signs of it blowing out some fluid at the actual pump. Topped up the fluid to full.

When turning at idle speed its hard very hard but pick the revs up and you hear the pump whine like you have it on full lock but it works like normal.

Any Ideas??????

[Mitsi Lover]

You'll see a small bleeder on the top of the pump. A 10mm spanner from memory, fill the resevior and let the air out of the pump.
You may have to repeat to get the air out completely.
As for the leak you'll have to diagnose that with the pump under pressure.

[03gallagherj]

Thanks for that will give it a go and let you know how i go with it

[Mitsi Lover]

I'm getting too old for this !!!
The bleeder is not on the pump it's on top of the steering box..... DUUUUHHHH

Sorry about that.

[03gallagherj]

haha dont worry i knew what you meant but no good hey even went to the trouble of renewing the power steer fluid, faulty pump im guessing ....

[Spursman]

It sounds like Low fluid overheat this cause air to infiltrate the system noise is very evident when turning from lock to lock. remedy top up bleed and then retop up fluid if required do not over fill as this can also give you problems.
Cheers spursman.

[03gallagherj]

have done all that. also booked it into Mitsubishi for them to give it a go with replacing a high pressure pipe in the line as someone told me that could also be my problem.

so mitsubishi replaced it bleed the system topped it up checked for leaks and its still the same (if anything i think its worse)

?????

Going to replace the pump in the next few days when i get a chance. anyone know how to do this? looks to be pretty straight forward few bolts and pipes.

[03gallagherj]

ok so after pulling out my gear driven power steering pump it became evident that
the seals are fine, the gears are fine, the bearings are fine, there is no blockages clearly visible and it was working......

so this leads me to believe power steer box?? how do i go about checking that one out?

[Matatak]

usually if the steering starts working again when you raise the revs its a pump fault.

I dont think you would be able to notice anything wrong with it just looking at it. take it down to a steering specialist (and no, not a pedders)

Theres more to it than the gears, seals and bearing.

[03gallagherj]

im thinking tomorrow when i have more time to play im going to throw my old power steer pump in it that i know worked. see how i go.

if that doesnt fix her up run some of that special stuff through the system to give it a clean then if all else fails take her on down to steering peoples and no not pedders lol

[03gallagherj]

go the power steer to work, pulled out the pump on my new engine (80,000km's) and put the pump from my old motor (320,000km's) old pump is going strong new pump pulled apart has wear on casing and the little rotor bits.

i'll rebuild the one thats not working properly if need be but the pump from my old motor is doing the job just fine now