I had to replace my pump since the old one went bad. Changed belt too.
I flushed the system with Amsoil ATF.
Bleed the system by raising the car and turning the wheel from lock to lock numerous times. The fluid doesnt have bubbles and isnt cloudy so I assume its fully bled. No groaning noises except at full lock (normal)

Now i'm getting inconsistant steering. Its either very hard to steer, sometimes loosens up or becomes erratic (jagged)

I'm not sure what to do now. Is this the rack going bad? Or do I have a bad control valve somewhere?

Hi, I suspect that you have let some dirt enter the system when you changed the pump. It's found its way to the control valve. I can see it being trapped air since the oil circulates it would remove all the air eventually and small bubbles wouldnt have much effect anyway.

I had a shop move pully and Reservoir to the replacement pump since I didnt have a pully remover. I'm not sure if he let any dirt when doing it on the bench. He does many pumps at his location but i hope he didnt do it to mine.
I did the flush twice now totalling 7 litres of fluid. I first flushed with atf type f 4 litres and 3 litres of amsoil. If dirt did get in is there away of getting it out? Maybe reverse flushing the pump by hand?

Hi, it only takes one speck in the wrong place, hydraulic components are made to very close tolerences. I doubt if you can flush it out since you have allready used 7 liters of oil trying. The fluid control valve is in the rack not the pump. I stripped power racks before, but not vovlo ones, and its quite easy as long as you can get all the internal parts (seals). The hard part is getting it out of the car. I would ask around your local shops just in case anyone has seen this problem before, the only trouble is you can allmost predict what they would say.

ouch I hope thats not the case. I thought you meant the control valve on the pump itself. I called my parts guy and they are giving me another pump. I'm going to start there and replace it again before heading down to the rack. I'll have to take it to a shop for the rack because its too tight in my garage to get under there.

If you only had a problem with the pump leaking, and the steering wasn't erratic prior to the pump replacement, the liklihood of having a bad rack is really really really small. When we replace a rack or a pump, after flushing the entire system, we head to the dead end street just two blocks down and circle to the left until we are dizzy, and then circle to the right until we are dizzy, repeatedly. You would be amazed at just how long it takes to work out insidious air bubbles. If, after driving for awhile, the problem doesn't rectify itself, I would probably double check the belt. Since you changed it as well, did you use the same size belt? and did you route it the same way? It really sounds like air, or a slipping belt to me.

Hope this helps,

Chris

Thanks for the quick response Chris.
while waiting for the new pump to arrive the last days or so the steering was stiffening but I suspected it was because the pump was starting to ceaze. It was making noises and stopping here and there. Finally the bearing blew out and all the fluid came out when i turned the engine off. Thats why I replaced the belt since it was now bad. The replacement belt is the same as the old one. (shorter version) Belt has good tension but I'll check for fluid on the pully.
I've probably put the steering from lock to lock around 200 times both with the engine off and on. Both in the air and on the ground (put car on snow or ice to save the tires) I never tried driving in circles though. Would that be in full lock? (i read full lock shouldnt be for more than 5 secs?)

First, what year 850? The reason I ask is a 93 has a strange size belt. Your belt should be a 6PK1743 if you have anything but a 93.

When we drive in circles, it is very near full lock, hitting the stops on occasion. I often wonder what the people in the houses at the dead end think...

A few other things that could affect it are: the AC compressor, when the defrost is on, the compressor is on, if the compressor is cycling on and off, it too will affect belt tension. Also, the tensioner (obviously) can affect tension.

The few racks that we have had go bad had varied symptoms, but usually, the symptoms are one, any, or all of:

a bad "spot" in the rack...where it kinda catches and then frees.
leaking so significantly that you can't rationalize adding fluid,
tremendously easy to turn one way, tremendously difficult to turn the other,
and "one" that actually "suddenly" made grinding noises and broke internally.

What you described just doesn't seem like rack to me, but stranger things have happened...like the last one above...

Chris

Its a 95 Turbo. When I changed the pump I put in atf type F. It worked great for a day. I dont think though I bled it thoroughy. Then it was very stiff the next day (like no power steering at all) I refushed with Amsoil atf fluid. It seemed ok again turning the steering stop to stop 50-100 times. Steering is studders at times. I can sorta feel the floor board grind abit now. I read somewhere about a torsion bar? But no noise from pump and no fluid loss.
I'm tempted to pull the pump out again and start over.

Are the hoses kinked anywhere?

Chris

i checked the hoses and no visible kinds. when I flushed there was good flow in the return line. I'm not sure about the other connector since it looks like a valve. I did take it to a lot and did lots of donuts. It was abit better but still stutters through the steering range. I'll take it out tomorrow for some more turns to see if it gets better (or worse?)
I was watching horse power tv yesterday and they dismantled an LS1 and they even commented that they would leave the powersteering intact to the rack since its a nightmare.

Thanks Chris for all your help. I did replace the pump again. It was doing the same thing. I was thinking about the lines and was asking for the price (which was more than the pump itself) The parts guy was saying if its not leaking its more likely the steering shaft universal (which he said can cause all sorts of problems) I guess it makes sense since when I was bleeding with lock to locks so many times it was getting better and the next day the bad steering again. As I did the pnp tonight and had the whole thing apart anyways I put some oil on the universal and see if it improves or not. If that oil works somewhat then my next step will be to replace it.

followup.

It did end up being the steering column linkage. I took it to a shop and got the guy to heat it with a torch to loosen it up and repacked it with grease.
Now the steering is like butter. He said by the looks of it that it has been seizing for the last 3 years. He didnt even charge me for doing it.

I just had the similar problem and dealer told me was the U-joint. They replaced it and now it is smooth as new.

Ching-Ho Cheng
--
1995 855 NA, Bilstein Strut & Shocks, Volvo Protective Grill, K&N Filter, E-Code Lens, ClearCorner Light, Alpine CD-Changer, AutoDim RearView Mirror, 6000K HID

what did dealer chg for the u-joint steering work?

Cool! I didn't think it sounded like the rack. Congrats!

Chris