The Art of Rebuilding a Power Steering Pump: A Cautionary Tale
So I'm gonna slide it onto the steering column, and then mount it up. Ooh! (ratchet clicking) All right, so last week, when we were taking this thing apart, I took some paint marker and I marked on the ends of our tie rods, where our tie rod ends met up with the threads here, so that when we put things back together, we could roughly target what our original alignment was. This will get us into the ballpark and it should make the car drivable if you're doing this at home and you're not able to align it after the fact. But you should be able to align it if you watch this video. So the last things we got to do are pour some fluid in the system, then bleed it, then start the car and see if it leaks.
I've currently got the car off (dramatic music) and I'm just going lock to lock all the way right then all the way left 15 or 20 times and that'll force fluid through the rack and force air out. And then I'll do the same thing with the car running. Just to make sure. That would suck worse than anything if like it leaked from somewhere else now. Can you even imagine? Well, this is the moment of truth let's turn it on and see if all this works been worth it or for the birds (car engine starts). Okay (upbeat music), no huge leaks on first startup, so that's good news.
Now I'm gonna check the fluid level. Make sure we didn't suck a bunch down. Make sure our level's still good. Little low, little low. Right in the middle. Voila. Everything looks bone dry and really nice, so, so far, so good. Yeah! All right, let's take it for a spin (emergency brake cranks) (beep). Well, is it just that puddle? - No Dude. - Oh no (beep). I wonder what is the --- It seems to have broke everywhere. Okay I mean that's just completely (beep). I've never seen anything like this my life, I can't believe this. This is some stuff I would joke about happening and now I'm living it and I don't like it (grunts).
So what do you guys think (melancholic music) is this worth it? You want to get into cars? (exhales). Well, I mean this sucks. That is so sad. I think we just saw the last of the power steering in this Miata, because I don't know, I'm not sure what I did wrong or which seal I busted or what but it's leaking all of the fluid onto the ground now, so (beep) you know what I mean? This is how it goes, I guess.
Let's actually recap that real quick. In terms of time (air whooshing), well not done yet, so this has taken so much more time than I anticipated, money, well I'm not done spending yet maybe especially if you believe that time is money. Well in terms of tools, I thought I had all the tools needed to start with but then there was that kind of weird seal issue which I didn't have the right expensive tool for so I tried to make one and we saw how that went.
But I did learn a thing or two. I mean, did I? I can't even say that I officially learned anything because we're leaking so much fluid. Apparently, I didn't learn anything and that is the biggest bummer of all to me I think. I thought you know what, hey (air whooshing), this has been a bit of a struggle, there have been some hurdles, we didn't save that much money but at least I learned something and at least we rebuilt a power steering pump.
But now I can't even say that so honestly, I am so disappointed in the way this has gone. I've never had so much trouble with something like this and it sucks. So this was not worth it at all. I should have just bought a remanufactured power steering rack from the get go or what everybody else does and just delete the power steering and be done with it.
Get rid of one more pump, you know what I mean? This one was not worth it at all. I'm Zach and this has been one hell of a money pit. I hope you guys enjoy it because I haven't. Now that we've got these huge puddles of power steering fluid in the driveway, we're going to have to figure out how to clean my driveway. So get ready for that.
And if any body knows a thing or two about rebuilding power steering racks and you saw me do something blatantly wrong that caused this, tell me please (speaking faintly).
WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(beep)- This is the kind ofstuff that can go wrongwhen you try to do it yourself.This is some stuff I wouldjoke about happening.I thought I was being carefulthought I was being gentle.And now I'm living it and I don't like it.(grunts)(sighs)This sucks.(upbeat music)The Miata's powersteering has been leakingand leaving puddles allover my driveway, exhibit A.So, we've basically got twooptions to fix this thing.(air whooshing)I could replace it,which would cost me about 200 bucks,although it would only take a couple hoursand it would definitely work.Or I could take this old nasty one out,blow it apart and try tofix whatever's leaking.And that would only cost me about $30.Although it is gonna takeprobably three, four or five,six hours, I don't know.And I could screw it up.So guess which one we're gonna do?We're gonna take a crack at rebuildingthis power steering rackand along the way we'll talkabout how power steering worksand why sometimes,fixing stuff like thisyourself is worth it,and why sometimes itdefinitely totally is not.And I don't know whichway today's gonna go.I'm Zach and this is MoneyPit, let's get dirty.(ominous soundtrack)Okay, so we got thepower steering rack outand it was pretty easy.All we had to do isdisconnect the inner tie rodsfrom the outer tie rods,we disconnected the steering shaftfrom the steering input hereand the fasteners that holdthe steering rack itselfto the car.So this thing is old.I think it's as old as the car.It seems to be leaking fromsome of the seals somewhereon the input shaft or the pinion area.So we're gonna take it apart,clean it upand replace the seals andhopefully that will stop the leak.(lighthearted music)- What's that new rubbers?So when you're deciding whether or notdoing a DIY project likethis is right for you,you need to take intoconsideration some factors.Like the time.How much time is it gonna take you to do?And the money.How much money could thispotentially save you?And the tools.Do you already have allthe tools that you needto do the job?And how much knowledge youhave, what your skill level is,Can you do the job?And ultimately how reliableyou want the thing to be,because a project likethis just is not worth itif it doesn't work at the end.Okay, I'd say we're readyto rip into this thing.What do you think?(enthusiastic music)(hammer tapping)So now as this comes apart,we're gonna want to paycareful attention to the orderin which it comes apartso we can put it back together.(banging)(power tool revs)Pinion.Okay, so now that we've gotthis whole thing blown apart,and we're at the point of no return,let's take a look at how thesteering system actually works.I'm sure you've heardof a rack and pinion,but now you can actually see it.This is your rack, andthis is your pinion.And when you steer your steering wheel,you turn your opinion, whichinteracts with your rackand turns your wheelswhichever way you're trying to turn them.Now that's pretty much how it works,whether it's a manual rack and pinion,or a power steering rack and pinion.The power part comes in over here.This seal right here dividesthe rack into two chambers,and one of those chamberswill be pressurizeddepending on which wayyou're trying to turn.If you're trying to turn to the leftwill pressurize this sideand that'll help push thesteering rack this wayto turn left.Trying to turn rightit's the exact opposite.Pressure comes over hereand pushes this way to help you turn.The question is how dowe tell the pressurewhich side to go on?Well, that comes back to the pinionwhich has a tricky littlerotary valve built in.So when you turn the wheelpressure comes from yourpower steering pump into hereand you turn your pinion,and that rotary valvemakes a determinationon which way you're trying to turnand sends pressureto the side that'llhelp you turn that way.It's honestly really simple.The only problem is when the seals go badand you have to replace them.So let's replace them.(gentle music)(speaks faintly)(speaks faintly)(gasps)- What happened?- This seal just broke.- What'd you do?- I don't know.I've got terrible news.I was trying to put the rotary valveback onto the pinionand this sealwas apparently a little toostretched out from installand is very fragile.And as I kind of slid it downwe just shocked this seal right in half.(beep)Boy oh boy.This is definitely a mark for thenot worth it side of things.This is the kind of stuffthat happens but man,I was being so careful.Now what am I gonna do?I don't actually know.I guess it's not completelyunreasonable to think thatlike a Pep Boys nearby mighthave this kit in stock.I guess I should go hit the old internet.- And what is this part?- It's for a 1994 Mazda Miata.- No nobut what part is it?- It's a power steering rack rebuild kit.It's like a seal kit.- Wellthat's a oh seal kit, okay.- They're not gonna have it,but hopefully some AutoZone does.- Sorry boss,none of our stores have itnot even our hubs.The only way we can get itwould be(melancholic music)if we order it from the vendorbut that won't be here till Tuesday.- Okay, well, I appreciate it,I think I'm gonna keep trying.- Yeah, I'm so sorry boss.- All right, no problem, thanks man.- All right. Be excellent.- Have a good one.(beep)(exhales)These are the breaks kids,these are the breaks.(birds chirping)Alright, so over theweekend I did some learningdid some research andI learned a lot about Teflon seals.Basically, the problem with these is thatwhen you install themon something like this,you kinda have to stretch themout to get them into place,and then they're a little bit too big,so you need to figure outhow to shrink them back down.Basically what we're going to dois put the new seal in somehot water before we install it.That should help makeit a little bit pliable,maybe expand it a tiny bit,and then once it's in place,I'm gonna whip up a littletool out of a two liter of cokethat should help us force itback down to a smaller size,so we can install itwithout destroying it.Should have done that researchahead of time, probably.But hey, we're here now.(upbeat music)All right, let's give it a shot.- It hasn't been that long.- Well how long do youthink it takes to warmthat little tiny thing up?- At leastmore than two minutes?- What do you mean?It's as hot as thetemperature of the water now.The thing's tiny it aintgot no heat capacity.- We got one shot.- Well, what do you think I have learned?(upbeat music)(blows air)(hammer tapping)All right, so that's the easy part.We got this far last time.Problem now is howbaggy the seal still is.Now we got to make it be smaller.We'll see where we get with this,and if it still looks too baggyI'll stick it in the freezerfor sho.Where's my scissors?Top of the groove.- That (beep)is not going to do anything.- Yeah, I mean, that is my concern.(laughter)The idea here is that thepressure from the hose clampwill force the seal to shrinkback up to its original sizeor at least close to it.As long as we can get it inplace, it should be fine.The power steeringworked fine on the Miata,and then we had to get inhere and fix it and ruin it.You know what I mean?Honestly, what I could have done isthere was nothing wrong with this seal.I didn't really have to go this deep.I didn't have to replacethese Teflon seals.But we had new seals, soI figured I might as well.That was my mistake.Okay, let's take this thingoff and see if it looksany better.It looks yeah, it looks better.It's definitely not as baggy,I could see a gap before I meanI think we probablyshould try to freeze itand see if that helps at all,but that looks better for sure.Oh, yeah, that's definitely better.This is gonna work.All right, it isthe official moment of truth.(dramatic music)I just pulled this out of the freezer.And between the hose clampthing and the freezer,this seal looks pretty good.It's pretty tight on here,and I think we're gonna beable to get it installed.But if we can't get itinstalled if I break it, thenthat's it for power steering.I'm so nervous.I'm so scared.It's got to drop down into that.This is the hard part, thisis where I broke it last time.It looks pretty good,I think it's gonna go.- There.- You see it right in there.I think it's going into its groove.(exhales)I think it worked.Okay, cool.Never looking back.Alright, so the seal went in.(lighthearted music)I'm pretty sure, it didn't feellike it broke felt great, soI think we can just continue.Slam this thing back togetherand put it back in the car,and hopefully we'll have no leaks.I mean, that's the whole thing.You know, this whole seal thing.Yeah, we got this seal in,but this wasn't evenour leak to begin with.And just cause I got this donedoesn't mean that I fixed the leak.We could still put thisthing back togetherand it could still leak sothis is a victory, butit's not everything.So let's just keep goingbefore we get too happy with ourselves.I guess from this point on,we're gonna go with gloves.(lighthearted music)(metal clanks)Good.Yeah!Come on.Okay. so we are almost back together,I'm about ready to tiemy boots into place.But before I do that, I'm goingto find center on the rack,so that when we put it backin, we're putting it inthe center of its travel left and right.So to do that, basicallyI have the rack turnedas if it were turned allthe way to the right.And this is our entire amount of travel.So right in the middle of thisshould be the center of our rack.So I'm measuring the entire thing,then dividing it by half.I'll make a little mark there,I'll run it in until we hit that mark,and then that's how Iknow that we're at center.That's approximately, our center point.So around until thatso that should be about center for us.Cool, so now we'll put our boots onand then put this thing back in the car.What do you think about that?- Oh I love it.- Since I have the rack out,and the power washer'sright there and hooked up,I'm gonna blast this real quickget all of this grime off of here.(power washer running)You got some water on your lens.All right, we're finallyready to put this rack back inand see if we fix the leak.So I'm gonna slide itonto the steering column,and then mount it up.Ooh!(ratchet clicking)All right, so last week,when we were taking this thing apart,I took some paint markerand I marked on the ends of our tie rods,where our tie rod ends metup with the threads hereso that when we put things back together,we could roughly target whatour original alignment was.This will get us into the ballparkand it should make the car drivableif you're doing this at homeand you're not able toalign it after the fact.But you should be able to alignit if you watch this video.So the last things we got to doare pour some fluid in the system,then bleed it,then start the car and see if it leaks.I've currently got the car off(dramatic music)and I'm just going lock to lockall the way right then all the way left15 or 20 timesand that'll force fluid throughthe rack and force air out.And then I'll do the samething with the car running.Just to make sure.That would suck worse than anything.If like it leaked from somewhere else now.Can you even imagine?Well, this is the momentof truth let's turn it onand see if all this works beenworth it or for the birds.(car engine starts)Okay,(upbeat music)no huge leaks on firststartup, so that's good news.Now I'm gonna check the fluid level.Make sure we didn't suck a bunch down.Make sure our level's still good.Little low, little low.Right in the middle.Voila.Everything looks bone dry.And really nice, so, so far, so good.Yeah!All right, let's take it for a spin.(emergency brake cranks)(beep)- Well, isit just that puddle?- No- Dude.- Oh no.(beep)- I wonder what is the--- It seemsto have broke everywhere.- Okay I mean that'sjust completely (beep)I've never seen anythinglike this my life,I can't believe this.This is some stuff I wouldjoke about happening.And now I'm living it and I don't like it.(grunts)So what do you guys think(melancholic music)is this worth it?You want to get into cars?(exhales)Well, I mean this sucks.That is so sad.I think we just saw thelast of the power steeringin this Miata,because I don't know, I'mnot sure what I did wrongor which seal I busted or what butit's leaking all of thefluid onto the ground now, so(beep) you know what I mean?This is how it goes, I guess.Let's actually recap that real quick.In terms of time(air whooshing)well, not done yet, sothis has taken so much moretime than I anticipated,money,well I'm not done spending yet maybeespecially if you believethat time is money.Well, in terms of tools,I thought I had all thetools I needed to start withbut then there was thatkind of weird seal issuewhich I didn't have theright expensive tool forso I tried to make oneand we saw how that went.But I did learn a thing or two.I mean, did I?I can't even say that Iofficially learned anythingbecause we're leaking so much fluid.So apparently I didn't learn anythingand that is the biggestbummer of all to me I think.I thought you know what, hey,(air whooshing)this has been a bit of a struggle,there have been some hurdles,we didn't save that much moneybut at least I learned somethingand at least we rebuilta power steering pump.But now I can't even say that so honestly,I am so disappointed inthe way this has gone.I've never had so much troublewith something like thisand it sucks.So this was not worth it at all.I should have just boughta remanufactured power steering rackfrom the get go or donewhat everybody else doesand just delete the powersteering and be done with it.Get rid of one more pump,you know what I mean?This one was not worth it at all.I'm Zach and this has beenone hell of a money pit.I hope you guys enjoyedit because I haven't.Now that we've got these huge puddlesof power steering fluid in the driveway,we're going to have to figureout how to clean my driveway.So get ready for that.And if you guys saw me ifanybody knows a thing or twoabout rebuilding power steering racksand you saw me dosomething blatantly wrongthat caused this, tell me please.(speaking faintly)
