93 Loyale, stock (no lift)

Fluid full, pump has a little noise coming from it, belts tight, any ideas?

 

Even with the wheels off the ground the steering has certain points in the wheel rotation where it gets stiff

 

My mind is coming up with all sorts of things but I don't even know where to start

Bearings in the struts

U joints in the steering shaft

The rack itself

What's the best way to troubleshoot this :-(

i had this issue when i replaced my CV axles, i wasn't sure myself so i decided to wait a couple weeks to see if it was that and turned out it was.. little wear on the new CV axles and steering was perfect again, no more "stopping points" or where the steering wheel gets ridiculously stiff as if you had no powersteering on certain points on the turn,

 

have you recently replaced any front CV axles?

Sounds like the pump may be going out. Mine did the same thing. Steering just started feeling notchy, it progressively got worse until the pump started to stall the engine. It happened over the course of about 2 month. I just removed the power steering.

No new cv's, but two old tired ones that need replacing.

If the wheels are off the ground and I grab a tire and push it from left to right, I can feel the resistance at certain points.

pump only has 100k I mean, I doubt it is the pump...but who knows.

It did take some abuse a few months ago with a deformed wheel....Is the pump hard to replace? Is it replaceable?

Pump is easy to change but my money is on a failing rack which isn't that difficult to change in this model. 

93 Loyale, stock (no lift)

 

Even with the wheels off the ground the steering has certain points in the wheel rotation where it gets stiff

 

My mind is coming up with all sorts of things but I don't even know where to start

 

U joints in the steering shaft

 

What's the best way to troubleshoot this :-(

 

Spray the U joints in the steering shaft with penetrating oil (not WD40) and spin the wheel lock to lock a few times. Make sure all 4 of the bearings in each joint get soaked in oil, you want to spray it on the cross inside the joint, not on the outside of the caps. If the steering eases up for a week, then you know the U joints are the culprit.

 

I've never seen a rack fail. I've seen a bunch of the column connector joints bind up, and they do just what you described, the wheel feels stiff, then loose, then stiff again as you turn it.

Yep, definitely the uni joints in the steering column. Went through this issue 15 years ago with people saying many things.

RHD Turbo cars suffer this really badly because the joint is right next to the turbo.

 

To test, just undo the bolts & slide one end of. You'll see it'll flop one way, but not another.

 

Pity you just got rid of the other shell, could've used that one as a replacement ...

Oil on the joints fixed this issue, thanks for all the ideas/suggestions.

It's more of a diagnostic test than a fix, the grease is gone in the joint so it will seize up again. It's time to replace the coupler now that you know it's the culprit.