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power steering stops working, then starts again before I die


cutlass1991

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driving up a hill around a bend going about 40mph, 3700rpm, power steering suddenly stops working for about a second and the wheel becomes hard to move. I thought I was gonna die because the bend was pretty sharp and I was driving with one hand, then the power steering decides to kick back in.

 

I just put on a new pump about 350 miles ago. It is not leaking and it is not making any noises. Other than this event, the steering is smooth.

 

What the heck would cause this? My only guess is that it has something to do with the belt slipping on the pulley or the pulley slipping on the pump shaft, but I haven't seen evidence of either.

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I had something similar happen a very long time ago on my old 80 Skylark. It turned out that something had worked loose in the rack, causing a partial block to the input of the PS pressure line. I remember having the rack replaced (with one from a newer X-Body) and the problem never returned.

 

I had heard that the problem was a design flaw, and they corrected it in later years. Not sure how that scenario would tie into the steering rack of a decade-newer W-Body, though, but your problem could be with the rack itself...

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did you bleed all the air from your power steering system by turning it from lock to lock with the cap off the tank and the motor running? if you don't do that the steering is interment like mine was until i did that 3 times each direction..... :bash:

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yeah i heard mixed things about bleeding with the engine running and not running. Even shop manuals say different things, So i first did it lock to lock 20-30 times with the engine off, then started it and did it another 20-30.

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