so I drop a tire through the ice then... and with a steering pump question.

[hack500]

just doing some scouting today for this weekend once the weather warms up and there'll be some fun mud to play in. and I'm crossing a small frozen-over mud hole when my front tire drops in.

then after I get the winch going pulling myself (which caused more ice to break) and trying to turn the wheels in the direction of where I ran the cable. I'm revving the engine, too, to make sure the alt. is putting out juice then the powersteering pump decides to eject all fluid in the reservoir to the underside of my hood, firewall, and engine (exhaust manifold seemed to most of it) resulting in a nice cloud of smoke. anyway the truck gets dragged through the ice to solid ground and I add some more powersteering fluid in. which brings me to the real questions for this incident.

anyone know WTF is the matter with the pump that would cause it to do that? and what I can do in the future to insure that it doesn't puke like that again?

I've also noticed if I'm running at 3500-4000RPM it will also puke out most of the powersteering fluid. jsyk, it's '71 cadillac powersteering pump.

 

[K5er4Life]

Sounds like the fluid was way overheated, you might want to think about running a cooler in the return line of you power steering feed. Do you have crossover or hydro assist?

 

[hack500]

yeah, got crossover. it may have overheated but the pump reservoir wasn't hot to the touch. I haven't put in a cooler, yet.

would an extended tube on the reservoir help anything? anyone know of a cap that can be adapted to make it have seal? what actually causes the fluid to be forced out from under the cap? is it the bypass just causing fluid to dump back into the reservoir so violently that it shoots out? somone's got to know. because I certainly don't.

man, I'm starting to think I must be a red-headed stepchild (or atleast whenever I start a thread.)

 

[ryanstrucking]

If you are running cross-over I would add a remote resivoir.
The extra fluid will help a lot as well as a cooler.
I added both and never had a problem.
Heres a picture of my resivoir added to my pump.

 

[hack500]

do you have a p/n for the remote reservoir or what did it come from???

 

[K5er4Life]

That resevoir he has there is from a 1 ton truck with hydroboost. Your best bet would be to go to the junk yard and start poppin hoods on the one ton trucks and find a setup from a hydroboosted truck. Then for the hose youll just need a radiator hose and a few hose clamps.

 

[hack500]

hmmm, I was looking over the engine bay and see 2 potential problems with me doing a copy of your setup...
1. distributor cap might be in the way.
2. the current height of the pump/reservoir in respect to the engine bay.
suppose I'll have to go jy hopping.

 

[1-ton]

Another thing that could of happened is that if the truck was at a great enough angle, the P/S fluid would be up against the P/S pump cap, and the cap will vent out the fluid just like if you over filled a P/S resevoir with fluid.

 

[TrcksR4ME]

do you have a p/n for the remote reservoir or what did it come from???

Astro Vans had a remote reservoir, they have hydro boost brakes too. I see a lot of Astro Vans in the bone yards around here.

 

[diesel4me]

G vans too..

Many full sized "G" series vans used a remote resiviour for the P/S pump too...you'll need to weld the top of the pump resiviour from the van's pump onto the caddy pump to accept the remote hose(or make a home brew substitute)..they are set up with a nipple to use a 3/4" hose instead of a cap with a dipstick....