Power steering return lines

[Daedalus]

Hello all,

I've been having a bit of difficulty with my power steering pump groaning. Basic symptoms are very clean fluid, silent operation for a short time after sucking out reservoir and refilling, and LOTS of bubbles and aeration of the fluid in the reservoir. After doing some searching and reading on the forum, I was lead to take a good look at the state of my return lines on the low pressure side. The line going from the middle of the reservoir to the pump looks great, in fact it looks like it's been replaced in the not-too-distant past, but the hose that runs from the bottom of the reservoir, out of sight is in really sorry condition and is likely the cause of my aerated fluid.

The issue is that I don't know where to find this hose. It looks like a specially formed hose, but can I just use bulk hose instead? Does anyone know what the correct diameter of this hose would be, and where the other end ends up?

Thanks,

- Dan

 

[SHOZ123]

I think the PS hose ID is around 1/2" or 12 mm. Bulk hose should work, it goes to the passenger side end of the PS cooler.

 

[Daedalus]

Thanks Paul. I measured the hose fitting on my "spare" PS reservoir and the correct size for that hose is 3/8" ID. I picked up a couple of feet of ATX cooler hose from NAPA and I will try to swap it out this weekend.

 

[Daedalus]

Sooo.... The return line on the power steering reservoir is 3/8", but the return line at the transmission cooler is 1/2". So I ended up using a 1/2" to 3/8" brass adapter, and it seems to have worked well. The power steering is silent now.