Okay, another chore wrapped up yesterday, after various hassles and inconveniences. I bought a new PS pump and all four hoses from Zip. Turned out that one of the four PS hoses I received was mis-marked, which resulted in me having two of the extend hoses for the cylinder, and no retract hose. A phone call to Zip got that worked out, kudos to Zip for great customer service. By the next afternoon, a new retract hose landed here on the porch, and they told me to not bother sending back the incorrect hose. Wasn't worth the cost of shipping. Thanks, Zip.
I also found that the mounting bracket for the PS pump was slightly tweaked or sprung, which caused major headaches and a lot of cussing in order to get the bolt holes to align with the holes in the engine block, and required a shim to get the pump pulley un-cocked so that it is aligned with the pulleys on the crank and water pump. I don't know whether this bracket was an OEM or reproduction piece, as it was on the car when I bought it.
And, then came the fiddling, fussing, tweaking and repositioning of the four new hoses. That was at least an hour, possibly two. There is very little space in that area, and there are many adjacent components that these hoses can contact as they travel with the drag link. I had replaced the power cylinder last year, as it had been leaking badly due to a nick in its shaft which damaged the seal. At that time, I had also replaced the extend and retract hoses, and I had failed to swing the steering lock-to-lock while watching clearances, and it turns out the retract hose was contacting the frame bracket when the steering was turned fully to the right. And, of course, that had chafed the hose. I hadn't noticed that until I got into this recent project of replacing the pump, and that led me to order all four new hoses along with the pump.
Getting the necessary clearances for all four of the newly installed hoses took a lot of finessing. If the "clocking" of the hard lines as they exit the flare fittings aren't clocked just right, all sorts of clearance issues arise. If they aren't clocked just right at the control valve and the pump, those two hoses can double back onto themselves when the wheels are turned hard-left, and there's also very little clearance to the oil pan. Turned hard-right, there's very little clearance to the frame, the frame bracket for the cylinder piston, etc. In this case, the high-pressure line to the control valve wasn't bent quite enough to clear the underside of the frame rail, so it required a little gentle bending to get the necessary clearance.
I'm happy to say that everything now clears, the system is refilled and bled of air, and roadworthy again.
Live well,
SJW
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