A time ago when I bought my 70GS one of the first works I did to it was rebuilt myself the saginaw steering box, it was leaking at the bottom so I though it could be a good time to change all the seals and bearings, so I did it and the steering box ended working fine I've always complain about my steering being extremely sensible, isn't possible to keep the car in a straight line and the alignment has been checked several times The last months I moved to a different house and to enter the car in this new garage I need to full steer and since then I start noticying my steering was pretty hard with engine idling @650RPM but if I revved it a bit it was soft again and also when I did this full steer I started seeing a lot of drops of hyraulic fluid in the floor which ended coming from the pump reservoir. So due to these two symptoms I guess the issue was that my steering pump was dying, went ahead and changed it with a rebuilt unit from Rockauto, installed it and nothing happened, nothing improved and nothing worsen. The fluid keeps coming from the top of the reservoir when I full steer and the steering is still hard with engine idling. I already checked my PS Fluid level and is fine, just below the "hot full" mark, also the cap seems to be in good shape, it doesn't has a gasket but I think these caps actually doesn't has one. So, do you guys think I can have an issue with my power steering box? if so, what could it be? Anyway if I have something going on with my box I just don't want to fix it or spend more time on it , I want to take the opportunity and try to upgrade the steering in my car to make it more reliable or better said less dangerous
Sounds like a bad steering box. Had issues with steering sometimes sticking when you first start it up. Replaced the pump and no difference. Replaced box and it worked great better afterward. Also check the tie-rods, upper and lower ball joints, and center link. Bad body bushing can also make the steering scary feeling.
t The front end was completely rebuilt less than 5000 miles ago even including the coil springs so I think that's not my case. But now due to @Bygblok comment I was try to remember when I installed the new pump and I just realized that actually the new pump didn't come with regulator valve so I reused my old pump valve. Could it be the cause for all these symptoms?
Yeah, a bad valve could cause your problem. It should turn very easy with the engine idling. Even with everything new and to stock, these old cars with power steering don't have really tight steering like a rack and pinion. But when I replaced my box, it made a world of difference in how tight it felt.
Do you replaced it with another Saginaw unit or with an upgraded option? steering is something I just don't like in my car and I would love to improve but anyway I'm not sure if the sensitve steering could be due to the valve thing
They have the quick ratio boxes that are supposed to make the steering tighter, which are just a little bit more in price than the regular boxes. I just went with the stock Saginaw box. With everything new (I replaced every component in the steering and suspension), the steering is pretty darn tight, even with just a regular box. I was kind of scared to drive it until I replaced the box because it was pretty sloppy even with everything else replaced.
without the right valve in the pump it can over/under pressure the system and make it feel like it's locked down. Even if you're just moving it from one pump to the other make sure you check the seals if it has any. It's one of those "calibrated orifice" kinda things.
