This is not for a buick , but i know that a lot of folks on this board are or were G.M. dealership techs. so i thought some one here would be able to help me out. My father and I are converting his 48 plymouth coupe to power steering using a power steering rack from a Cavalier . The kit comes from a major street rod chassis manufacturer and was easy to install in the car and line up . Our problem came yesterday when we filled the system and fired the engine up . All was fine , we idled the engine for a few minutes to check for leaks but when i tried to turn the steering wheel it started whipping back and forth on its own and the seal on the input shaft at the rack blew out . My first thought is that we connected the pressure and return lines backwards , as we sourced the rack from a parts store we never were not able to check out the correct orientation from a donor car . before we connected the pump to the rack we called a friend at who owns a parts store who called a friend at a G.M. dealership , niether could tell us for sure which hose went to which connection at the rack, we also called the street rod chassis shop that sold the kit and they told me that the pressure hose went to the smaller connection and return went to the larger connection . (This is somewhat misleading as the actual hoses are the same size but the threads on the connections are different . We are using AN hoses to connect the pump and rack ).Using the shops recomendation this is how we connected the system : Pump hi pressure discharge to the rack connection closest to the driver( also more tword the center of the car) , return from the connection closest to the front of the car ( more tword the outside of the car )back to the pump return connection . Can any one confirm the correct orientation of the hoses for me or if we did have it correct can any one suggest a reason why the input shaft seal blew out . thanks for any help .
