no power steering

[Doug Colson]

I was having some fun in the mud pit. I was downing a few donuts to the left in 2WD and when I streightened up it seemed that my power steering had failed. I checked and there is no leak. The fluid is at the correct level although some what dark. When I get someone to move the steering wheel I see a slight movement in the level. When I jack the van up, the wheels can be turned side to side with no effort. Using the steering wheel or just pushing on the wheels.
I have been through my manuals but they don't seem to cover the 2.8l with the direct drive pump. I have a 96 L400. They show belt driven units on other engines.
Does anyone have any ideas or is there a common problem that some one knows of that manifests itself like this. I do my own work as there is no one out here to take this to.

Please Help.

[Doug Colson]

Good Morning all.

I now have a van with good power steering again. We thought that the shaft between the gear and the impeller pump may have broken so ordered a used pump from Coombs Country. I removed the old pump to get the van ready for the new pump and found the the shaft was fine. I decide to look a little deeper into the issue and found the the Flow control valve was jammed completely. I was able to free it with the help of a punch and a hammer. There was a very small piece of debris jammed in the valve. There was some wear on the front plate of the pump that this debris was probably from. I repaired the wear on the plate. I removed all the old fluid, flushed, installed the original pump and refilled with new fluid. After I bleed the system and topped up, the Steering was great.

I hope this will help someone down the road.

Happy wheeling

[mac_stang]

Good to hear! Glad you got it sorted out!

Brad.