Power steering pump - woodruff key?!?!?

[Boatbuoy]

Hello chaps,

So, my body off chassis refurb is well on it's way. When the chassis goes away to be sorted in a week or so I will turn my attention to sorting any issues on the engine. One of the things I want to look at is the power steering and oil pumps.

I get intermediate issues with my power steering but I think this is an issue with the rack as opposed to the pump. My reasons for this theory are:

1) I have good (engine) oil pressure - and the two pumps run off the same shaft right?
2) The rack leaks!

However I am aware that problems can occur. What are the signs, what do I need to look for, what do I need to buy/change etc....?

Regards,
Olly

[ukkid35]

Boatbuoy said:

Hello chaps,

So, my body off chassis refurb is well on it's way. When the chassis goes away to be sorted in a week or so I will turn my attention to sorting any issues on the engine. One of the things I want to look at is the power steering and oil pumps.

I get intermediate issues with my power steering but I think this is an issue with the rack as opposed to the pump. My reasons for this theory are:

1) I have good (engine) oil pressure - and the two pumps run off the same shaft right?
2) The rack leaks!

However I am aware that problems can occur. What are the signs, what do I need to look for, what do I need to buy/change etc....?

Regards,
Olly

The coupling between PS pump and shaft could be slipping. Joolz used to fix this by adding a grub screw as has been done on my car.

[Flatplane8]

The earlier cars, pre 97 I think had a smaller woodruff key on the power steering pump at was more prone to shearing. I replaced mine with an electric Clio pump and removed the original one. If you've got it all out, it might be possible to machine a larger key way, if needed.

[Boatbuoy]

Cheers Paul,

Since starting this thread I did a bit more research (should have done that first!) and it's all a bit clearer now.

[Boatbuoy]

Thanks flatplane,

Mine is a '97 car, but it's lasted for 17 years so far! I'll take it off and have a look at it. I don't want to go down the electric route if I can help it as I like to keep the car as original as possible.

[Luckyone]

They run of the same shaft yes, but each pulley has its own woodruff key so just the PAS woodruff key will break leaving the oil pump working fine.

If the engine is out it’s easy to remove the PAS pump then you can check to see if the pulley will spin independently from the shaft. They can apparently still stick a bit so the PAS comes & goes.

Mole Valley TVR did the Joolz mod on ours back in 2002 ish:

[Boatbuoy]

I see, that's very informative. I'm getting to understand this now!

[ukkid35]

Great photo!

[Boatbuoy]

Luckyone, I must also thank you for your body off guide. It's proving very useful!

[gruffalo]

I completely understand teh keeping it original but the electric PS pump is a worthwhile upgrade, if the PAS drive has been slipping it can take the shaft withit. Mine was very out of round when my PAS packed up so to bring it back would have meant the whole shaft needing to be replaced, this has been done in my engine rebuild so I can go back to mechanical PAS should I want.

Another reason to go for the electric pump is it actually works properly as a constant pressure where as the original pump was off a Peugeot Diesel that revs to about 4500 RPM, the cerb runs the same gearing but rev much higher causing over pressue and excessive wear hence the drive issues. I have seen a Cerb PAS pump actually blow it self open and spill its insides out due to this.

[Luckyone]

Boatbuoy said:

Luckyone, I must also thank you for your body off guide. It's proving very useful!

Glad you found it! All the photos are here there maybe something else in that lot you find useful.

It’s so close to being finished now I can almost smell the tyre smoke…

[ridds]

Another E-Hyd PAS fan here.

I would recommend a cooler though, even something as simple as a metal pipe in the nose running across the car and back as I've suffered from reduced performance when the oil gets very hot.