derekd Posted October 3, 2005 Share Posted October 3, 2005 I have a 90 legacy wagon with 180k and awd. I lost my power steering belt/alternator belt while driving yesterday. I was about seven miles from home, so I cranked hard on the steering wheel in the slow turns and got it back to my garage. I replaced the belt (and tightened the loose crank pulley - close call!) and drove it again. Now I have a shudder in the steering when I make slow tight turns, and sometimes it shudders or vibrates when I turn the wheel hard and the car isn't even moving. Did I toast my ps lines or my pump? I bled the ps system (I think) by turning the wheel all the way in each direction several times. There is no leakage of ps fluid and the level is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted October 3, 2005 Share Posted October 3, 2005 Is the vibration there when you turn the wheel while the car is not moving. Does it change if you give it gas and turn the wheel while parked ? nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derekd Posted October 3, 2005 Author Share Posted October 3, 2005 It only seems to do it when I'm in drive, so it also seems to happen when I'm braking in a slow turn or just have my foot on the brake when I'm stopped. As soon as I give it gas, the shudder goes away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted October 3, 2005 Share Posted October 3, 2005 have you looked at the pully while the engine is running to make sure its true? The crank pully has to be torqued, and usually what you may be feeling is the crank pully and not the p/s pump. Just an educated guess... nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derekd Posted October 3, 2005 Author Share Posted October 3, 2005 Yeah, the pulley looks true. I do have it torqued a bit more than the recommended 70 to 80 lbs but not by much. It couldn't be that it's on too tight could it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted October 3, 2005 Share Posted October 3, 2005 Is it at all possible, that you have two seperate issues? One that you fixed, the other maybe a cv joint? nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derekd Posted October 4, 2005 Author Share Posted October 4, 2005 That could be a possibility, although the vibration started immediately after I drove it with no power assist and tightened the pulley. The timing of that would be amazing, but weirder things have happened to me I guess. I'm familiar with the click and clunk of a cv joint on its last days, but this is a real narrow fast vibration with an audible hum that is coming from the front end and is ending up in the steering wheel and not the front seat. It could be the cv, it's just not a sound I've heard before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 Audible hum? Time to get out the really big scredriver and use it as a stethoscope. Assuming you had no timing belt work in the past 3 months, maybe your pump is going and that caused things to happen... here is an idea .... silly me. Can you take off the PS pump belt and drive the car a short distance and see if it goes away? Thats the next step nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derekd Posted October 4, 2005 Author Share Posted October 4, 2005 I took off the belt, drove the car and couldn't get it to make that vibration again. I did get sort of an arm workout, kinda like driving my 63 Suburban, just with a smaller steering wheel. When I put the belt back on, the vibration was back and also in reverse, not just drive. I also tried the belt looser and tighter, both had no change in the vibration. I read on a post that SubieGal answered she mentioned the ps hoses as well as the possibility of the pump (although the owner of the car said that the car was run with low ps fluid in it). My fluid has always been at the correct level. Thanks for walking me through this, by the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 NP thats what we are here for ... i would suspect the pump may have an issue nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derekd Posted October 4, 2005 Author Share Posted October 4, 2005 I'm doing some work in Arizona and I'll be back home in New Mexico in a couple of weeks. I have a spare, leaky but working ps pump at home I can put in and try that out. I'm not so sure about the hoses. We'll see. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiny Clark Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 Have you ever changed the fluid? Not that it will fix it, but the fluid is probably shot anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derekd Posted October 4, 2005 Author Share Posted October 4, 2005 No, I haven't - I have only had the car for a year and I doubt the previous owner did it either. From other posts it sounds like you turkey-baster the reservoir, put new fluid in it, crank the wheel a few times and repeat those steps a couple of times. Yeah, the fluid probably isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing, but the symptoms happened so dramatically and suddenly. It didn't progressively get worse over time. But that is a good heads up about the fluid - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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