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"How To" SVT & Zetec Power Steering Pump & Line Replacement

112K views 35 replies 19 participants last post by  ave13co 
#1 · (Edited)
Parts
Pump | PS line | PS line fitting
TOOLS
Get metric crescent rachets 8,10,18 or at least stubbys
Pully puller get one from ford or the kind that applies force to the center rather that grabbing the rim of pulley.
5, 10 & 12 mm sockets w/extentions

Jack up car on 2 stands under front

Dump Old Fluid
1 Unbolt the coolant tank; popup with screwdriver in back slot (leave hoses attached!) & out of the way,
2 Pull the PS reservoir out of the slots (no screws, just rubber grommets)
3 Unclamp the small return hose on PS pump
Dump the reservoir fluid in a milk jug.

Pull Sepentine belt with 8 cresent & pipe for leverage on the tensioner


Pull PS pump
Pump is above ac pump
4 Unbolt 2 12mm along PS line on top of header,
Pull clamp for return line
Pump Unbolt 4 10mm

Trick on lower driver side bolt is to loosen first ;
pull other 3; then you can pull the pump out as you unbolt.


Maneuver pump through top of engine

Pull PS Line
Unbolt pressure line with an 18 crescent wrench. I clamped that bad boy down, it's on there.

Getting to PS LINE underneath the rack by:
Option 1 pulling out the dogbone trans mount and rocking the bottom of the motor forward
and holding it in that position with a jack or block of wood.
Option 2 Pulling driver tire
Unbolt the plate holds both the pressure & return line to the rack
Pull line from that end.
Unbolt 5mm bolt that holds the return & pressure lines in place
(I got to it from the top with a long extention.)

Reinstall Pump
Remove pulley with pulley puller & put on with supplied bolt & nut
Position lower driver side bolt first then
Put in black O-ring in the pump and bolt line fitting on pump; torque it well.

Bolt the pump in place

Reinstall PS LINE
Push in the tapered tip in Pump Fitting till it clicks in.

Push-in connection at the rack and bolt plate attached to the pressure line.
OPTIONAL-Replace both the pressure and return line o-rings at the rack while you're in there.
Bolt 2 12mm along PS line on top of header,
Clamp return line
Bolt Pressure line from bracket
Put in plastic braket & bolt 5mm bolt

Fill the reservoir with new fluid,
I left the car up on BOTH jackstands
pull Fuse 12, and crank the engine for about 5 seconds while turning the wheel stop to stop. Fill the reservoir and crank again.
Repeat the "crank, turn and fill" until the fluid going to the jug is clear and clean - should take a over a quart. On the last crank leave the reservoir barely empty. Put the return hose back on, replace the reservoir, fill it, and replace the coolant tank. Plug the fuse 12 back in and run the car, turning the wheel. Check the PS fluid level is between min & max.

Replace Serpentine Belt & Cover
 
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#7 ·
I'm currently replacing the powersteering pump on my 2000 ZX3. I notice this post shows an O - Ring being placed in the union bolt hole on the power steering pump:



I looked through the factory service manual and didn't notice any O-Ring being placed there. Anyone replaced their power steering pump lately can elaborator on this??

Also, I tried using the new powersteering pump without the O-Ring and it leaks through the union bolt pressure line (attached to the bolt). The O-Rings supplied by the new pump did not fit in the union bolt hole. Or am I suppose to replace the the entire powersteering high pressure line??

Thanks!
 
#8 ·
The fitting provided should look like the OEM one below. If you look closely, it has two O-rings; the white one about mid way that seals the fitting against the pump body, and a black O-ring in the bore of the fitting (you can just see it at the top) that seals the ps line against the fitting bore.
iirc, the ps line has a narrow groove machined in it and the fitting has a tiny circlip below the black O-ring in the bore (not visible) that clicks into the groove of the ps line to hold the fitting positively on the end of the line.

When I came time to relocate my ps line, I replaced a section of the pump end of the line with a new ps line and fitting and used a compression fitting to join the new and old line (so I didn't have to mess with the rack end.)

You're dealing with very high working pressure in the ps line so the leak proof sealing of the components isn't always as simple as it seems.

Not sure if that helps any.
 
#9 ·
Thank you! That answers alot on how the union bolt is stoping the PS fluid from seeping out between the union bolt & pressure line. My new powersteering unit didn't come with a new fitting, I think they just gave me an O-Ring and hope I somehow stick the O-Ring in the old fitting.

How the heck did you remove the circlips when the union bolt is on the PS line? It's such a tiny opening to work with!
 
#10 ·
Perhaps "circlip" wasn't the best term; it's more of a very thin closed C-shaped wire with some springiness in it. You can't use traditional circlip pliers on it, for example, to compress it. (It's a bit like those plastic parts with one way tabs that snap together one time only during assembly.)

If I were you, I'd proceed by buying the fitting first - Ford part # F5RZ-3R608-B about $ 6-8 bucks - just to be safe. I say this because I think the fitting is intended to be installed once only and removing it will probably destroy or damage the circlip/ C-clip. Could be wrong on that though.

I would also suggest you remove the fitting from the ps line by carefully applied brute force. I didn't have to do that operation - I had a new fitting and new OEM ps line (parts came separately) - so anyone else who with experience on that can chirp in.
 
#11 ·
Makes sense. At this point, I think I'll just deal with the complete PS high pressure line and replace from the rack up. Looks a bit easier to do that then negotciate with the old fitting and old PS line. Thanks for the insight.
 
#13 ·
I just did a zetec swap and I went and ordered a new line at the local parts store. It came with everything I needed to put it on. O-ring and everything. I found the most difficult thing to do when switching lines was getting the old line off the rack. Takes a lot of choice words and a pry bar for leverage and a hammer (also for leverage on the prybar). I think I payed 45ish bucks or something. You can get a much better price on rockauto.com, I just didn't want to wait to for shipping.

 
#15 ·
Power Steering leak

Hi, I have searched the various threads to no avail. I need to replace the little o-rings on the pressure and return lines at the rack. Where to get these? What size are they? The how-to sticky shows this as an optional step but thats where my leak is. Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks[dunno]
 
#17 ·
Hi, I have searched the various threads to no avail. I need to replace the little o-rings on the pressure and return lines at the rack. Where to get these? What size are they? The how-to sticky shows this as an optional step but thats where my leak is. Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks[dunno]
Having this exact same issue, did you ever figure out where to get them or how to replace them?

Thanks
 
#16 ·
I had new o-rings come with my new line. I would imagine you could get them at a ford dealer, if not out of a assortment kit at a autoparts store. If all fails check out a hardwear store.

Sent from 34.0764° N, 118.4296° W
 
#18 ·
I found two options. First, you can order from the Ford dealer. They want $6.00 for one and $10.00 for the other. I was shocked that I would end up paying almost $20.00 with tax for two tiny orings. I know its not alot of money but its the principal of it. Thats just absurd!! The second option was to take off the two orings, and bring them to Napa auto parts. They had two large containers of orings .One was sae the other metric. I found two that were very close in size, ever so slightly larger than the stock ones. I did not record the sizes unfortunately. Removal is a pain but doable. I removed the dogbone mount for clearance. after puling the single bolt out of the mounting plate the lines pull right out. I made a small hook out of a large needle so i could remove the stock orings without tearing them. that way i could try to match them up better. Install is easier and just the reverse of removal. Leak fixed :) hope that helps.
 
#20 ·
I apologize for revival of this thread, but may I ask if anyone out there had their pump live through a full dump of the fluid, to the point where you finished the drive home with no power steering?

Long story, but it dumped, I refilled to finish a small trip, it dumped again from full before I made it home. It was obviously making racket, but didn't sound like things were breaking, more of just a fine vibration. I have the leak from the ps line to the nut (upper black ring). I drove about 25 minutes with zero ps. Anyone else do that and the pump still work? Gonna put new ends on tomorrow, just curious if I HAVE to get a pump. Much thanks to everyone in this thread, great ppl on this whole forum!
 
#21 ·
The ATF fluid is cheap, fill and see what happens. The worst case scenario is getting a new PS and high pressure line (connects to the PS rack). I went to Autozone and paid less than $60 for a new pump and the line is close to $50 (I think that's the price...). After 30k miles, I'm impressed the AZ parts lasted......... for now.
 
#22 ·
I would like to add some info to this thread incase someone reads this one and not any others. If anyone feels this should move to it's own thread please make me aware. I do not wish to thread jack, just wanted to add more info. If you only have a leak at the pipe where it goes into the union nut, or the nut itself, then this lil novel is for you.

If your union nut and pipe ONLY is what leaks, then you can unbolt only that nut and swap the nut itself. Move the coolant expansion tank outta the way. Move the ps reservior out of the way. Use a 8mm on the tensioner and take your belt loose. You WILL need a 18mm crows foot (as the op mentioned) and a couple of long extensions to unbolt the nut from underneath, unbolt the line 'holder' from the motor on top, so the line will wiggle well enough for ya, then wiggle it out from under the pump, and pull it up where you can work with the nut end on the radiator support. To get the old nut off of the pipe, I had to very precisely and carefully use a cutting wheel to cut around it where the brass locking ring is, (observe your new nut to see where you need to do your cut all the way around) until I reached the ring, used a tiny flat-head to break it off, then both pieces of the old nut will slide right off. The new nut slides on and clicks in place like buttah, then just bolt'r back up.
You do not need an o-ring in the pump for the union nut to tighten 'against', as shown above in this great write up. (Thank you for it!)
Ford does not have that in their parts diag or the procedures. My leak was bubbling from between the pipe and the union nut, so I bought the nut itself from Ford for 8 bucks. (Miracle that they sell it by itself) It comes with all the rings pre-installed on it that it requires. Buying this will keep you from having to buy and replace the whole line.

I would recommend removing the belt. As bad as that sucks, you will waste crazy time and effort trying to get the nut to 'start' unless you take the belt loose. Then you can get a proper grip on the nut with your fingers.

I also would like to reassure ppl that have to drive home with no ps that my pump survived just fine even though I drove 20-30 minutes with it totally empty. It made quite a bit of racket, so I figured it would need to be replaced, but it is quiet as a mouse again. After the union nut job was done, it was still very loud and I discovered I had two leaks. The dang ps switch on the pump was leaking out of the connector also. I swapped that, and THEN the ps pump was totally quiet like new. So look for that if your pump is still noisy after the nut swap. Thank you FLZ for chiming in earlier before I did this gig today.
 
#23 ·
I decided to replace the union nut aka quick release fitting aka 3R608 with the above method. I stuffed a paper shop rag in the HP line and carefully ground a ring around the old connector until the threaded end separated. I twisted off the retaining ring and the other half slid off. I managed not to ding the high pressure line during the operation. I cleaned off the end and installed the new 3R608. Reinstalled the pump and she's running great - no leaks!
 
#26 ·
Pressure line to pump union: finger tighten at first?

This thread has been very helpful to me as I work on replacing my power steering pump on my 2000 ZX3.

Q: should the union screw into the pump body easily or is it ok for it to require a wrench after a few threads? I'm afraid of cross threading it.
 
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