Power Steering Pump Reseal

Thanks to Jerry at Studebaker Center of Oregon, the parts arrived to seal up my power steering system. I figured I'd start with the one with the greatest number of seals.

First, I remove the pulley and shaft key...

Then undo the bolt to remove the reservoir.

Next up, the brackets.

And then the relief valve/flow control unit.

After this, the pictures low down a bit because my hands were getting a bit gunky and I didn't want to get power steering fluid all over my phone. But occasionally, I wiped things clean and snapped a picture. Here the case is apart, the rotor shaft, pump cam insert, pump carrier and rollers are removed for inspection.

Then it was a matter of cleaning up all the internal passages and pieces with a "suitable" solvent.  One of my favorite is brake cleaner--it evaporates rapidly and works well--so a few squirts and I'm ready to reassemble. Basically, it is just going through the same steps backwards, but you have to replace all those seals. Everything is also coated liberally in power steering fluid (Dexron III Automatic Transmission Fluid is a good modern substitute for the fluid Studebaker used back in the day.)

And we're back together:

It was actually pretty simple. I'm sure it wasn't working as efficiently as it could have been as some of the original o-rings had basically dissolved--little left but a bit of material. Of course, it'll be a while before I can see if it is sealed and working properly; that's always a bit of a scare when working on a project of this magnitude. When doing auto repair you typically replace a faulty part and then get to immediately test your repair and correct any issues. In a project like this one, there's a long wait and many systems that will need adjustment (or fail and need repair) before you can get back on the road. Here's hoping those adjustments are minimal.