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Power Steering Pulley

Matt R

Hard-core CEG'er
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How complicated is this to change out, anyone have directions? I'm guessing it should spin freely with the belt off? Mine seems to be dragging. Speaking of that, all pulleys except the crankshaft should spin freely with no belt, correct?
 
How complicated is this to change out, anyone have directions? I'm guessing it should spin freely with the belt off? Mine seems to be dragging. Speaking of that, all pulleys except the crankshaft should spin freely with no belt, correct?
While I'm no expert, I'd think it's really easy to change out. You will need to take off the front wheel and the splash shield, and use a 13mm (IIRC) to loosen up the tensioner and pull the serp belt off. I'm assuming that any old offset wrench will be able to take the pulley off, but I'm not sure what size :shrug:
 
I just took a look at the Ford CD, and it said you need special Ford tools... a power steering pulley puller, and a power steering pulley replacer? Seems like it would just be easier to replace the entire pump if that's the case.
 
The pulley is a press fit onto the pump shaft, and special tools are needed. It doesn't matter though, because what you described sounds like the pump itself is locked up, and changing the pulley won't fix that! The only time changing a pulley is needed is if it's bent or the grooves are no longer straight causing abnormal belt wear.

Get yourself a PS pump and an inline filter, which is installed in the low pressure (return) line. This will prevent pieces of your dead pump from killing your brand new one or taking out your steering rack as well. Also flush out the fluid thoroughly and use fresh Type F.
 
Yup, pump bushing itself is going bad or inner problems, pulley won't touch that. New pump time. Flushing out the fluid will include running the rack from lock to lock to pump out both sides of it. This is a good time to discuss changing fluid here every once in a while. Everybody changes engine and trans oil, but most don't give a fig for steering system, that oil gets hard use. I use a turkey baster to regularly change a good portion of it. Idea to keep fluid looking closer to the red color than black. I have never lost a power steering system in any car I've owned doing this.
 
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