Bought a '97 K2500 with a snow plow on the front. We've had larger-than-usual snowfall here--this was the perfect time to get a plow.
Seller tells me there's a power steering fluid leak. He's already replaced the pump/reservoir, and a couple of hoses to the Hydroboost. Still leaving puddles and moaning. Empties the reservoir in half-an-hour or less. Puddles are just behind the front bumper, directly under the left tow-hook attaching bolts.
So I find out that GM hides a "power steering cooler" INSIDE the frame rail, where it's impossible to remove without taking off the bumper. It's a real mess, and being a plow-truck, everything is corroded to death. I've already broken the two bolts that hold the right-side tow hook. And this "cooler" is nothing more than a long 3/8 (or 10mm) steel tube bent back and forth a few times with zero cooling fins attached.
Turns out, the moron that installed the snow plow mount used cheap (Grade 5) bolts that are WAY too long. These bolts do double-duty, they are some of the fasteners that attach the mount, but they also retain the tow hooks. The bolts are long enough that they're pushing on the tubing "cooler" inside the frame rail. Either the tubing wore through from contact with the bolts, or the stress of being pushed on caused the tubing to crack.
I cut the tubing a couple inches from the outlet fitting of the PS gear, wire-brushed the nut-and-tube at the PS gear to remove dirt and sludge, removed the nut-and tubing section. Put the tubing-and-nut in a double-flaring tool, but squeezed it only enough to form a "bead" on the end of the tube to retain a length of hose. Verified the O-ring seal was still usable. Bypassed the cooler with a foot or so of POWER STEERING HOSE (NOT fuel hose Fuel hose can't take the heat of a PS return system) and clamped the other end of the hose to the return tube of the PS pump reservoir. Used "14-16" Fuel Injection clamps as they clamp tight AND don't tend to damage the hose the way cheap "Breeze" worm-gear clamps do.
No more leak. No more cooler, either--which will have to change sometime later in the spring. In that it's still well below freezing here, and the truck is run for about fifteen minutes to half-an-hour at a time at low speed (plowing) I'm not horribly concerned with PS fluid overheating. Summer may be a different matter.
Who the hell thought a PS cooler should live inside the frame rail?
Seller tells me there's a power steering fluid leak. He's already replaced the pump/reservoir, and a couple of hoses to the Hydroboost. Still leaving puddles and moaning. Empties the reservoir in half-an-hour or less. Puddles are just behind the front bumper, directly under the left tow-hook attaching bolts.
So I find out that GM hides a "power steering cooler" INSIDE the frame rail, where it's impossible to remove without taking off the bumper. It's a real mess, and being a plow-truck, everything is corroded to death. I've already broken the two bolts that hold the right-side tow hook. And this "cooler" is nothing more than a long 3/8 (or 10mm) steel tube bent back and forth a few times with zero cooling fins attached.
Turns out, the moron that installed the snow plow mount used cheap (Grade 5) bolts that are WAY too long. These bolts do double-duty, they are some of the fasteners that attach the mount, but they also retain the tow hooks. The bolts are long enough that they're pushing on the tubing "cooler" inside the frame rail. Either the tubing wore through from contact with the bolts, or the stress of being pushed on caused the tubing to crack.
I cut the tubing a couple inches from the outlet fitting of the PS gear, wire-brushed the nut-and-tube at the PS gear to remove dirt and sludge, removed the nut-and tubing section. Put the tubing-and-nut in a double-flaring tool, but squeezed it only enough to form a "bead" on the end of the tube to retain a length of hose. Verified the O-ring seal was still usable. Bypassed the cooler with a foot or so of POWER STEERING HOSE (NOT fuel hose Fuel hose can't take the heat of a PS return system) and clamped the other end of the hose to the return tube of the PS pump reservoir. Used "14-16" Fuel Injection clamps as they clamp tight AND don't tend to damage the hose the way cheap "Breeze" worm-gear clamps do.
No more leak. No more cooler, either--which will have to change sometime later in the spring. In that it's still well below freezing here, and the truck is run for about fifteen minutes to half-an-hour at a time at low speed (plowing) I'm not horribly concerned with PS fluid overheating. Summer may be a different matter.
Who the hell thought a PS cooler should live inside the frame rail?
