Air in power steering line, How to flush/bleed it?

[whynotthinkwhynot]

Wow.. roll back the clock to answer a thread. I wonder if the guy ever finished.

[frednumber15]

I installed a rebuilt rack....and was following the Ford FSM method for refilling (other than using vacuum).

Didn't work.

What does work? Fill the res up to within 1/2" of the top and turn lock to lock...let it sit a while...run at full lock (but not to the point that the pump is working hard)..let it sit.

If you never have the level above the FULL mark...it will just pump foam. As soon as I filled the res...it cleared up in under a minute. You can ALWAYS remove a little fluid....my level ended up right at the full mark.

Then...lo and behold...the next morning the level was within 1/2" of the cap...so I took some out...down to the top mark. Then I started it ...turned wheel from lock to lock 2 times or so....shut it off. Level was now down to the bottom of the res. So I added some back to the full mark. Has now stayed there for 30 miles or so.

Recommendation? Fill it up to about 1/2" below the cap and keep it there till you are sure it has stabilized. If it overflows and runs out...who cares...if it stays off the serp belt? Once you've driven it for a while and all seems well...put the level at the top mark.

[amc49]

The pump has no way of knowing whether half or overfull. As long as level never gets low enough to suck more air you should be fine. The pump will get noticeably louder when it eats air.

Lots of people have trouble and whatever trick they are working at the time is the supposed cure. The point is that air can really get chucked in there and the ONLY WAY it will EVER bleed is for all fluid to get back up into pump to be able to release its' air since air is trapped everywhere else in the system and cannot get out.

If you have more than enough fluid to fill it open and ready to go you can get someone to start car, run rack one way and then other, and you filling pump as fast as it eats. Done correctly it fills instantly with no air at all and no bleeding to be done. I do it all the time but you have to be quick about it.

I have jacked car up but actually better not to since car weight makes the torsion valve in rack open more to bleed more completely and faster. No load on that valve with car in the air..............