Hard power steering

[Greybeard]

Good luck firefigher,

I think I'm gonna be down your way Saturday to pick up a rescue dog and hit a reining horse show. If I'm lucky time wise I want to find the harbor freight store too.

[rich weyand]

One more suggestion, not about what failed so quickly, but about steering effort generally.

Flush the system with synthetic P/S fluid, then use synthetic.  Much easier steering effort.

[firefighter]

Just throwing out a quick update in case anyone ever has this issue and reads this in the future.

First of all, I really don't have a full update yet. LoL...
The power steering is back to working properly even though I really haven't done the final things I was going to do to fix it.
To recap quickly, I had taken the power steering belt off to replace the lower crank pulley. When I put everything back together, the power steering was difficult or sluggish. I checked everything over and all looked just fine. Steering was still harder than normal.
I changed the power steering pump and that didn't fix it.
I purchased a new high pressure hose and new gear box (that I wanted to change anyway since my original one has more freeplay than I like) and was going to change them next.
Well I'd had the truck out a few times and at times the steering seemed better... but then it seemed sluggish again. The third time I took it out the steering seemed 100% back to normal. What the heck?
Just as quick as it went away... it pretty much eased back into operating just fine. Why?
I have my suspicions.
One of the fine members here suggested that the belt could be slipping without squealing. I'm giving more merit to that than I originally thought. I just can't prove it.
I placed white marks on both the belt and the power steering pulley and they're both turning super fast now. Course it's working fine now too. Was it slipping somewhere? Maybe. I don't know what else to think.
I'm still going to change the hose, steering box and install a new belt.
How tight does the belt need to be?

I mean, how much would it have to slip to affect pump pressure? Pretty significantly I'd think.
When the engine is idling the power steering still works and the pump isn't turning super fast then.
I just don't have any other guesses. It seemed to get better the more I drove it.
I'd like to think I can bleed a power steering pump correctly after having rebuilt this truck from the frame up. Ha !!
I'll update if I confirm more.

[Greybeard]

On my old trucks I never really had any steering issues that weren't caused by something obvious like the steering box breaking off the frame.

My rule of thumb (right or wrong) is use your thumb in the middle of the longest run and estimate what about a ten lb push would be to deflect it about 1/2". It's worked for me  YMMV. I'm a big guy with strong thumbs though.    I know I've seen belt deflector tools but they've all been really expensive, and as far as I'm concerned, unnecessary. Again, YMMV. So, simple answer is they need to be tight, but not so tight that the bearings burn up in ten minutes....and not so loose they slip... now that's easy isn't it? LOL...

[firefighter]

On my old trucks I never really had any steering issues that weren't caused by something obvious like the steering box breaking off the frame.

Exactly... the subtle stuff. Ha Ha !!!     

So, simple answer is they need to be tight, but not so tight that the bearings burn up in ten minutes....and not so loose they slip... now that's easy isn't it? LOL...

Yeah, just a happy medium in between those two extremes.   Ha !!

Seriously,  I do understand what you're talking about. I've been a home wrench turner most of my life and I thrive understanding mechanical things. This one was just taking me for a ride because it wasn't making any logical sense in the way it came on and wasn't showing anything specifically wrong.

Sometimes the simple stuff is what can get a guy the most frustrated.

[Greybeard]

It's never happened to me so take this simply as a story. An old farmer was having fits with his old tractor shutting off intermittently all the time. Hit the starter and it would start and run perfect again for however long, no rhyme or reason to it, sometime he could go through an entire tank of fuel with no problems, sometimes it would shut off after every ten minutes.

It turned out to be a simple answer after he almost had an embolism over it. This went on for over year from what I heard.

Any guesses, I know most of ya'll probably know the answer.

[VileZambonie]

Is your pulley bolt on or press on?

[firefighter]

Is your pulley bolt on or press on?

Yes it is.....and it pressed on very hard. Ha Ha!!