Replacing power steering pump

The power steering pump on my '95 300tdi is in the last throes of dying. It's making horrible grinding noises when you turn the wheel.

Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, how big a job is changing it?

I'm reasonably handy with spanners and sockets but are there any 'gotchas' I need to be aware of before I start to strip it down ?

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being bloody difficult I take it, then the PAS pump is about 1.

Brilliant! That's just what I wanted to hear.

Mechanically I'm pretty good, having kept my Landies going over the years and rebuilding motorbike engines, but never done one of these before.

Into the shed the old girl goes tomorrow then, to begin the strip down process ready for when the replacement pump arrives next week.

I done 2. Pretty easy take fan and the belt off.gives loads access in to pump.couple bolts n then pull out undo pas pipes.and refit new pump n put bk together

It's a dead easy job, 30 mins tops.

yup **** easy job, done mine twice the week due to fitting a 2nd hand pump that didn't work, first time took about 30 mins second tome was about 15 mins

Matt Baxter said:

yup **** easy job, done mine twice the week due to fitting a 2nd hand pump that didn't work, first time took about 30 mins second tome was about 15 mins

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how long to do a d2?

Thanks folks. I'm confident I can do it from what you've all said.

I had a quick look in the Haynes 'Book of Lies' about removing the fan and it talks about using a 'special slim open-ended spanner' to remove the nut.

That's the only bit that gives me pause for thought. I suppose I could grind down one of my spanners if necessary.

Ambriel said:

Thanks folks. I'm confident I can do it from what you've all said.

I had a quick look in the Haynes 'Book of Lies' about removing the fan and it talks about using a 'special slim open-ended spanner' to remove the nut.

That's the only bit that gives me pause for thought. I suppose I could grind down one of my spanners if necessary.

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exactly what i did, i also had to grind a 27mm spanner to fit 32 as i didnt have one.. but works a treat.

It is a really easy job, hardst part is catching all the fluid lol, (you have checked this right) ie the grinding isnt because you have no fluid...just checking

Thanks Paul, I have a 30/32mm spanner that's already reasonably thin, so hopefully won't need much grinding.

Yes, I checked the fluid, just in case. No sign of any fluid loss - just a horrible noise - and with the roads round here I'm not taking chances on it failing and me becoming part of the geography.

Hmmmm... let's just re-cap on that last posting: I checked the fluid when the car had been standing a while.

I've just manouvred the old girl into the barn to get a better look at the job in hand and with the bonnet up I immediately heard the sound of fluid dripping onto the floor beneath the engine.

Closer inspection revealed fluid leaking from around the cap on the power steering fluid bottle. When I took the cap off the fluid looked very odd indeed; lots of small bubbles in it so it looked more pink than the usual deep red colour.

Leaving it a while and the bubbles have gone and the fluid has returned to the normal but it's about an inch down from the top now. Does this mean anything to anybody or are we all still happy with the fault being the pump?

Sounds like you have air in the circuit, so it might be worth bleeding the system before you spend money on a new pump.

There is a bleed nipple on top of the steering box. You will need a ring spanner for the nipple, a length of clear plastic pipe, some atf and a collecting jar. The steering must be in the straight-ahead position.

To do the job:
1. slacken the bleed nipple leaving the ring spanner on the nipple, attach the plastic pipe and put the other end in the jar, as high up as you can manage. Have the reservoir cap off and spare atf to hand;

2. Start the engine and watch carefully the plastic pipe. If there's air in there you'll see bubbles;

3. Keep watching the pipe whilst topping up the reservoir.

4. If you see no bubbles in the pipe after 2 mins, stop the engine. Your problem is NOT caused by air in the circuit.

If/When you replace the pump you'll need to go through the same idea as above to bleed the air out. The circuit capacity is 3ltrs.

system is self bleeding ,if its getting air in it will be by a faulty pump

Ambriel said:

Thanks Paul, I have a 30/32mm spanner that's already reasonably thin, so hopefully won't need much grinding.

Yes, I checked the fluid, just in case. No sign of any fluid loss - just a horrible noise - and with the roads round here I'm not taking chances on it failing and me becoming part of the geography.

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The proper spanner is about a fiver, well worth the money.

jamesmartin said:

system is self bleeding ,if its getting air in it will be by a faulty pump

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That's not been my experience. Between the pump and the steering box and in the box itself air gets trapped. Using the bleed screw got rid of it all.

Dave

ive never reallly needed to ,box has a return pipe and if systems not sucking air in at pump a few lock to locks clears it

Thanks for all the input, guys, I'll try bleeding it first although if there's are in the system it's getting in somewhere as it's been fine until a few days ago. Maybe a split hose?

If the proper spanner is only a few quid then it's worth buying rather than mangling one of my spanners. Can anyone confirm whether it's 32mm or 36mm on the 300tdi?

Ambriel said:

Thanks for all the input, guys, I'll try bleeding it first although if there's are in the system it's getting in somewhere as it's been fine until a few days ago. Maybe a split hose?

If the proper spanner is only a few quid then it's worth buying rather than mangling one of my spanners. Can anyone confirm whether it's 32mm or 36mm on the 300tdi?

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32MM ON A tdI 300 AND DON'T FORGET IT'S A LH thread - so to undo it you need to turn it CLOCK-WISE.

Brilliant! Landrover people, you're fantastic! Off to Ebay I go.

32mm it is. Yes I'd spotted the LH thread gotcha. Wonder how many people that's caught out?

Just an update on this. Took a bit more than half an hour but that was mainly due to difficulties getting the bolts out.

First problem I had was getting the bolts out so I could remove the pulley from the PAS pump. Working on my own I couldn't get enough leverage on the crowbar to hold the pulley still so I ended up making a tool to lock the pulley from a large Jubilee clip and a section of Dexion shelving bracket that I'd cut and bent so that it fit across the pulley and engaged against the engine block.

I don't think the bolts had been touched since the old girl rolled out of the factory 17 years ago. A couple of them came out OK but the others the 10mm socket just slid off. I had to hammer on a 3/8" socket and use that to break the lock. Similar trouble with the four bolts holding the mounting bracket to the engine block and the three bolts holding the pump to the bracket.

Eventually I had it off and disconnected the hoses, having first placed a bucket beneath to catch the fluid. Reassembly, as the Haynes 'Book of Lies' regularly assures us, is the reverse of disassembly.

In fact it all went back together very smoothly, with the only glitch being when I realised I'd fitted the bracket to the pump the wrong way round. Bleeding the system seemed to go well enough even though I was still working alone, dashing from the cab to the bleed screw to the fluid reservoir to keep it topped up.

Took the old girl for a short spin and checked the fluid reservoir. It just needed a top-up, and no bubbles

Only other problem was that somehow I'd managed to pinhole the radiator - probably when knocking the 3/8" socket onto the siezed bolts - but a bottle of Radweld seems to have sorted that out.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions, folks. Something else I now know how to do