Apologies if my n00bness when it comes to power steering maintenance is showing. I have been to hell and back with the steering on this truck (92 C1500), it has never been easy enough to turn the wheel, and I know because I drove a dude's 94 Blazer in the past and it was great - light, smooth response, not as tight/accurate as you'd like but that's to be expected with these trucks.
In my case, I have always gotten a workout in my ride. Steering has consistently been difficult, mostly when the wheel is closer to center. Been through several gearboxes (OEM was shot, threw in a cheap reman and that still had a ton of play, so now I'm on a Bluetop and it's doing pretty good). I have also been through a couple pumps, OEM was squeaking and pulley flopping all over the place due to a bent shaft, so again, I naturally went for the cheapest reman at first not knowing better.
Fast forward to last weekend, I just installed a new Edelmann pump, and after, followed what I thought was a decent bleed procedure - jack up front of the truck, remove the fuel pump fuse, crank over the motor, and while it is cranking turn the wheel from hard left to hard right several times, back to center, stop cranking. I repeated this about 10 times and no more than 20 seconds at a time to avoid starter damage. This was seemingly to no avail; the fluid level in the pump didn't go down much and it became frothy. I waited for the froth to settle and then did a more old-school method of turning wheel back and forth while the truck was off. Still not much success. I finally decided to re-insert the fuse and start the truck while turning the wheel. After a bunch of times doing that the fluid level dropped but not by much, and I know there is still air in the system because the wheel still does not turn very easily even with the front tires in the air. Also if you turn the wheel slightly to either direction and leave it there, you hear air hissing.
I had to leave it at that for now, at least it has been bled enough to get me to work and not ruin the pump. Am I doing something obviously wrong here? How many times do I have to follow this bleed procedure to get decent assist from my power steering? I refuse to believe my brand new pump is having issues, and from what I can tell so far there are no leaks. The hoses are only a few months old and so is my Bluetop rebuilt gearbox. In case anyone is curious, I also just rebuilt my front end over the summer due to totally shot ball joints & tie rod ends - big improvement in general handling but not in steering feel.
In my case, I have always gotten a workout in my ride. Steering has consistently been difficult, mostly when the wheel is closer to center. Been through several gearboxes (OEM was shot, threw in a cheap reman and that still had a ton of play, so now I'm on a Bluetop and it's doing pretty good). I have also been through a couple pumps, OEM was squeaking and pulley flopping all over the place due to a bent shaft, so again, I naturally went for the cheapest reman at first not knowing better.
Fast forward to last weekend, I just installed a new Edelmann pump, and after, followed what I thought was a decent bleed procedure - jack up front of the truck, remove the fuel pump fuse, crank over the motor, and while it is cranking turn the wheel from hard left to hard right several times, back to center, stop cranking. I repeated this about 10 times and no more than 20 seconds at a time to avoid starter damage. This was seemingly to no avail; the fluid level in the pump didn't go down much and it became frothy. I waited for the froth to settle and then did a more old-school method of turning wheel back and forth while the truck was off. Still not much success. I finally decided to re-insert the fuse and start the truck while turning the wheel. After a bunch of times doing that the fluid level dropped but not by much, and I know there is still air in the system because the wheel still does not turn very easily even with the front tires in the air. Also if you turn the wheel slightly to either direction and leave it there, you hear air hissing.
I had to leave it at that for now, at least it has been bled enough to get me to work and not ruin the pump. Am I doing something obviously wrong here? How many times do I have to follow this bleed procedure to get decent assist from my power steering? I refuse to believe my brand new pump is having issues, and from what I can tell so far there are no leaks. The hoses are only a few months old and so is my Bluetop rebuilt gearbox. In case anyone is curious, I also just rebuilt my front end over the summer due to totally shot ball joints & tie rod ends - big improvement in general handling but not in steering feel.