Help Power Steering = No Difference

[stig3131 0 1 Cars]

Please bear with me this is my 1st post ! I have tried everything I have read on here and made no difference.

 

I have a phase 1 205 rally car and the steering was extremely heavy, I replaced the rack top mounts bottom arms track rod ends etc and made no difference so I decided to go for power steering. I purchased a recon rack an put the old one in as surcharge, fitted all the pump pipe work etc and started to bleed the system as described in the Haynes manual. The fluid started coming though so I started the engine expecting the steering to be lighter , but NO just as heavy as before!

 

So I changed the pump , no difference

Changed the ram , no difference

 

 

Wd40'd the uj on the column , no difference

 

Checked the pipes are fitted correctly and yes all good

 

 

Please help !

 

 

Thanks Neil

Edited March 12, 2013 by stig3131

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

When you say top mounts, did you do the bearings?

 

Have you done the tracking?

[stig3131 0 1 Cars]

Yes there are now fixed rose jointed top mounts and the tracking is set

Edited March 12, 2013 by stig3131

[ORB 227 1 Cars]

Have you lock to locked it several times with the motor running?

[stig3131 0 1 Cars]

Yes many times,

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

I'd get a replacement UJ. It could be seized.

WD40 won't do a lot if it's dead already

[ORB 227 1 Cars]

I would undo the control arms and see how tight the hubs are to move by hand.

[stig3131 0 1 Cars]

Thanks chaps, I will look at both and report back.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

UJ, They have a habbit of going solid over time,

[stig3131 0 1 Cars]

Is the uj on a 306 the same as 205 or will it fit ?

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Just a silly suggestion but don't overlook where you have mounted the fluid bottle it needs to be higher than the pump so that the fluid can fall into it?

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

205 & 309 ones fit and thats it, the 306 ones use a square drive and not splined

[PhilNW 43]

Can you see the fluid returning to the bottle?

 

Also with the engine ticking over move the steering wheel to see if the engine revs drop which shouldl mean the pump is pressurising and pumping fluid

[Anthony 1,002]

With the car jacked up, is the steering still heavy or is it then nice and light?

 

If it's still heavy, you know there's a problem. Upper columns can fail and make the steering very heavy, and are often overlooked.

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

When the PAS on my old STDT got heavier it was due to the lower column uj seizing up & that was on a daily driver.

 

Resistance slowly built up & it was occasionally notchy so I didn't notice it immediately until after I'd driven the GTI with no PAS & found it easier to turn.

 

g

[stig3131 0 1 Cars]

Update , I have tried all the suggestions and to answer a few , with the front end jacked up off the ground the sterring is free and not notchy, the fluid can be seen returning to the bottle and there is no air in the feed pipe (it's clear) . As soon as the wheels are on the ground it's heavy. To recap I have swapped the hydralic ram, pump checked all pipes are correctly installed looked at the uj which is nice and free etc all with no change. All now is left is to swap the rack , the rack was a recon rack from local motor factors . Please help all comments are welcome it's doing me in.

[calvinhorse 870]

You don't just think it's not as assisted as you expected?

 

How many turns lock - lock?

[stig3131 0 1 Cars]

There is no difference to the non power rack I took off , between 2.75 & 3.5

locks I would say

[stig3131 0 1 Cars]

Update , the rack I bought from the motor factors was faulty, fitted new one today all good , pleased with the weight

Of the steering ..... Thanks for the help tho