powersteering pump?

[joebmx2]

ok i have searched the forms and couldent find anything that macthed up to my problem exactly.

for about the past 4 months my engine has been making this horrible whinning sound. its there ALL the time. as soon i start the car. when i rev the engine its whines even lounder. so i finally got around to taking the serpentine belt off last night and trying to spin the alterantor pully by hand to see if it was that. it wasnt. i moved to the power steering pump pulley, and i could move the pulley side to side a little bit. im pretty sure its not suppose to move at all, just spin. i tryed to spin it by hand and it would not make the noise, but im pretty sure i just was not spining it as fast as the engine could. has anybody else experniced this?

btw the car is a 1998contour svt with 120k

 

[jd2-98s]

Have you checked the power steering fluid level?

 

[joebmx2]

i did that when it first started and it was fine. this whine is very lound and dosent sound like it could have been brought on by low fluid anyways. the car drives and steers likes its brand new just a very loud annoying whine

 

[amc49]

If it's the power steering very often you can tell by turning wheel while car not moving but engine on. The whine will change somewhat by loading steering, especially when at the very end one way or the other.