'95 Grand Am Power Steering Issue


  #1  
Old 09-14-06, 02:38 PM
I
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Angry '95 Grand Am Power Steering Issue

Hello all!

I have a little bit of a dilemma here that is making me pretty angry. Here goes my story...

I have a '95 Pontiac Grand Am SE with a 2.3L engine. Part of the rack & pinion cracked about two months ago and I was getting air in my system, I didn’t have the time and/or resources (tools or money) at the time to fix it, so I bought this stop leak junk and dumped it in. Obviously it didn’t work, so I parked my car until I was able to fix it.

Now a month later, when I had time and everything I needed, I bought a re-manufactured A1 Cardone rack & pinion from a local parts store. I pulled the old one out and tried to put the new one in without ruining it (man was that a B$^#$)! After getting it in place and attaching all the lines n' such, I fired up the car and bled the system to the best of my knowlage/abitlity.

Everything seemed to work okay, I noticed that the steering was a little stiffer than the old rack but I didn’t think anything of it, all I knew was that it was MUCH easier to turn than if it didn’t have any fluid or if the car was off and so forth.

So anyway I quickly found out the rack didn’t center itself at all when turning left or right. I searched the internet and found a procedure on adjusting the tension on the racks bearing, which I did, but it still wouldn’t center itself.

So here I am two months later without a working rack!

Does any one know what else I can or should do?

- To my knowledge the pump is still good or when I run the car it wouldn’t turn very easily, maybe its starting to die, I don’t know!?
- Is it possible that I clogged my system up when I put that stop leak junk in there and there isn’t enough system pressure?
- Is the re-manufactured rack I bought defective? It doesn’t seem to be...
- When I put the new rack in place, one of the lines on the rack smashed in a LITTLE, could that be it?

I'm trying to find any feasible explanation!


For the love of God help me please!!! ...LOL, I really am desperate!
 

Last edited by ibanezsteve; 09-14-06 at 03:53 PM.
  #2  
Old 09-15-06, 02:56 AM
C
Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Somewhere in the US
Posts: 66
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
smashed lines will cause problems in any pressurized system. If you're going to do your own repairs take the time to do it right. If you don't , you end up on a forum yelling help! Stop leak is for procrastinators who don't know any better. There is no mechanic in a bottle for repairs, only preventive maintenance. As for your RandP. Pull it out , repair your line , flush the system with clean fluid under pressure and reinstall. Don't forget to bleed your system properly. When you paint a house you don't apply primer without sanding and you don't paint without primer. Stop taking shortcuts and costing yourself time and money.Besides , what good is saying you did it yourself if you can't tell your buddies the proper way to do it in the first place?
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description: