PS pump internals beyond hope? (pics)

[BVRPLZR]

Good tip, but no lip to speak of.

I'll still be getting another pump from the salvage yard though.

 

[Erik the Awful]

In a pinch I'd run it. If you have the means to replace it, that's also a solid decision. I don't like the corrosion on the shaft near where the seal rides.

 

[GoToGuy]

Another thing , you have to consider length of service. No matter how efficient your filter is , the fact that it is serviced by a capped opening is the first point any contaminates are introduced. Any dust, a few bits of engine bay dirt. And it's right into the pump reservoir tank. And every second the engine turns it's working. I would just believe there will be various degrees of wear. We may be far outlived the engineers original expectations of service life.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

So here’s a thought: in the vans, the fluid reservoir is connected to the housing via a length of tubing. I wonder if the truck style housing helps the pump stay better lubricated because the fluid is right there.

Maybe I should source one from a truck?

The van still has the normal sized reservoir at the pump, just has the additional capacity of the remote reservoir and hose. If anything the van has more fluid available.

Also just FYI, you could use a pump off a much newer Express van, say a 2017. The newer GM pump will literally bolt right on. I did just the opposite on the 87 I put a L31 into. The pump on the 87 was in great shape and I bolted it on the Vortec braket to delete the EVO pump that was on it. The new GM pump is not much more than a reman. Might even be able to score one from the treasure yard.

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[L31MaxExpress]

I even used the newer style lightweight pulley on the older pump.

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[Turbo4whl]

@Schurkey & @BVRPLZR The outside of the rotor only touches oil. The rotor in the first picture has a fast lathe cut, each line is even.The side of the rotor can show wear. The picture of the cam ring shows wear. You would also check the pressure plate and thrust plate for wear. Harder to see, the leading edge of the vanes probably have wear in that pump.

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[Schurkey]

Early in my career at The Bus Company, we had pallets of Vickers (V20?) power steering pumps that had been mistakenly ordered--or mistakenly packaged 'n' shipped.

Anyway, all these pumps were brand-new...but set up for use in an application that turned the rotor the other direction than the Detroit Diesel 6V92 was going to spin them. (PS, air compressor, and alternator were all gear-driven off the back of the engine. Alternator was rated for something like 150 amps at 27 volts, but weighed 80 pounds and was oil-cooled, 'cause it was expected to push 150 amps all day long.)

That's the first time I'd ever been "inside" a PS pump. A bunch of us were tasked with pulling the pumps apart, flipping the cam plate/rotor housing upside-down, and putting 'em back together. We'd occasionally have to do the same thing to a few pumps after that, but not pallet loads of 'em. The housing had marks cast-in that showed the rotation direction they were intended for, but it's been so long I wouldn't know 'em if I saw 'em.

Flipping the guts of those big Bus PS pumps is the only time I've had PS pumps apart beyond unscrewing the pressure valving from the back side.

Gonna have to do a Saginaw someday.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Early in my career at The Bus Company, we had pallets of Vickers (V20?) power steering pumps that had been mistakenly ordered--or mistakenly packaged 'n' shipped.

Anyway, all these pumps were brand-new...but set up for use in an application that turned the rotor the other direction than the Detroit Diesel 6V92 was going to spin them. (PS, air compressor, and alternator were all gear-driven off the back of the engine. Alternator was rated for something like 150 amps at 27 volts, but weighed 80 pounds and was oil-cooled, 'cause it was expected to push 150 amps all day long.)

That's the first time I'd ever been "inside" a PS pump. A bunch of us were tasked with pulling the pumps apart, flipping the cam plate/rotor housing upside-down, and putting 'em back together. We'd occasionally have to do the same thing to a few pumps after that, but not pallet loads of 'em. The housing had marks cast-in that showed the rotation direction they were intended for, but it's been so long I wouldn't know 'em if I saw 'em.

Flipping the guts of those big Bus PS pumps is the only time I've had PS pumps apart beyond unscrewing the pressure valving from the back side.

Gonna have to do a Saginaw someday.

That sounds like loads of fun! First I have heard of an oil cooled alternator. I have put a Porsche SUV alternator on one of their Cayanne V8 SUVs that was coolant cooled though. Had coolant lines with banjo bolts going to it and the housing was pretty much entirely sealed. I do not recomeend that job at all.

 

[Schurkey]

That sounds like loads of fun! First I have heard of an oil cooled alternator.

50DN Delco. The 12V alternators had a different-color serial number tag than the 24V units. We mostly--but not always--used 24V.

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Lil' tiny -4 oil inlet hose leading into the copper tube, visible here. Bigass outlet hose (not visible) because the oil got so frothed-up inside--and, I think, to carry away the additional oil tossed into the case by the geartrain of the 6V92.

Working at The Bus Company WAS fun. Also exhausting, mentally and physically. It was my first and only real experience with the Chinese Curse "May your life always be interesting." There was never a break from a "crisis". We could see each new crisis coming down on us from weeks away. Wave, after wave, after wave of crisis, all of it due to poor or no planning, often of the financial sort--we were on credit-hold with the vendors. The company would rotate who got paid based on how critical the parts were to the next shipment of buses. Point is, none of this was really a crisis. It was just another day at work. The company went from "crisis" to "crisis" because apparently it had management people who wanted a reputation for being able to deal with crises. Therefore, they made certain that the company was always "in crisis".

Eventually, telling the truth about serial number swapping and the subsequent interstate/Federal "attempted" fraud that I stopped, got me demoted, transferred to another department, and loss of pay.

But it was fun while it lasted--13+ years.

 

[SAATR]

@Schurkey & @BVRPLZR The outside of the rotor only touches oil. The rotor in the first picture has a fast lathe cut, each line is even.The side of the rotor can show wear. The picture of the cam ring shows wear. You would also check the pressure plate and thrust plate for wear. Harder to see, the leading edge of the vanes probably have wear in that pump.

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If the original picture is the factory finish on that rotor, then that's the ugliest machining that I've ever seen inside of a hydraulic pump.