Technical Power steering/ Saginaw pump and box.

I guess this isn’t my month for power steering issues,,,,
Is there a way to wake it up?

I’ve got a long term project just about ready for its first road test. But the power steering system is completely inoperative. It worked fine before I took it apart.
The pump : lines attached and sealed
was cleaned degreased painted, shelved till ready. Removed pulley.
The box: lines moved over from pump attached and sealed was cleaned degreased painted and shelved till ready.

6 months go by, Put it all back together, install pulley and now no workie, nothing.

The only thing I noticed upon assembly was the pump was kinda hard to turn at first then freed up nice.

Everything is painted, detailed, and ready to go. Of course I need to take it apart and make a mess now. Not sure what the hell to check, there’s no noises, bubbles , certainly nothing obvious.

 

Pulley tight to the shaft....not spinning?

 

How did you remove and install the pulley ?

I’ve seen pulley either coming off or going on pull the pump intervals around and damage stuff.

with the pump initially having that tight spot, could it if possibly had some rust inside ?
Water got in unnoticed ?

your gonna have to make a mess unfortunately to diagnose this thing.

with the engine running any fluid movement ?
Bubbles ?
Anything ?

any kind of power assist at all ?

 

Correct Puller used to remove
Propane Heat and tap with leather mallet to install, air to cool.
It’s possible something got in there.
No assist, no bubble, nothing going on.

 

Tapping it on could of buggered it.

I like using installers on the pwr steering pump pulleys

tapping it on your now putting all that force and shock into the pump body .


Jag had an incredibly complex and stupid pwr steering pump on there inline 6’s and an even more complex and stupid tool to install the gear ( pulley )

Ive seen more then one guy blow out an 1,300 buck pump by either tapping the pulley on or using a press to get it on and completely shitting the inards of the pump .

 

That is a vane style pump. Centrifugal force moves the vanes out to form the pumping chamber. The first thing I would do is rev the engine to a fairly high rpm and see if it starts pumping. The vanes may be sticking or stuck.

 

I've worked on a lot of those over the years and have never seen one with the vanes stuck in the rotor to the point that they didn't pump at all.
You could have broken the rotor hammering on the pulley but if the shaft is spinning in the rotor it should make a racket that will tell you something is wrong.

Top one with vanes in is some foreign unit but they work the same. Note that there isn't much room between the center and the slots for the vanes and that makes them a bit fragile when you beat on them.

Bottom one is a Saginaw ring and rotor no vanes. When the rotor spins the vanes are supposed to sling out against the inside of the ring and move the fluid.

One other thought is that you could have pushed the back side plate back and jammed it leaving a space between it and the rotor and the vanes. It's held in by spring pressure with a coil spring inside the back inside cover of the pump

 

I've seen plenty with a broken shaft where it tapers down to the rotor. Try pulling the shaft /pulley, if it's busted it will slide out.

 

This is the breakdown diagram of a Saginaw power steering pump. There isn't a lot in them and there isn't much that can go wrong. Usually it is the inside of the ring or the pressure plate or thrust plate getting galled because it was run out of fluid too many times.

 

Dirt dobber's build a nest ? Had that on open fuel lines after a car has sat for a while.

 

Nothing seems to be off limits to those buggers or leaf cutter bees.
Still since it was all apart on the bench and now no pressure did you happen to forget to put the pressure relief valve and spring back in? When you put the flow control valve in you usually have to push against the pressure of the spring to get it into the first thread. That would create a no pressure situation.

 

I never took it apart, other than the pulley
And a gentleman’s tap to set the hot pulley

50 years old , just time to go. I flipped in every which Way but loose while it was getting cleaned and painted.
It’s quiet as a mouse and no action.

Shaft does not pull out.

 

Air bubble? Did you bleed the system?

 

I've also seen a few with a broken shaft, and it doesn't take much to break them. If you are unable to pull the pulley forward though (belt off) then I guess you're looking at something else.

 

So,
I called the parts store and they had it Minus reservoir.
I pulled the pump off, and everything seemed fine. Turned it upside down drained it, Flipped it over and loosened up the brackets, put it on its back and shaft was locked. Wiggle jiggle and tap then shaft free.
Shook it and flipped it some more and shaft free, or locked depending on how it landed.
Didn’t have time to take it apart, it’s a core now.