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Power Steering Pump Options?


techboy
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My power steering pump is leaking ... again.  I rebuilt it once when I restored my car, and it was fine for a while and then it started to drip maybe 2 years ago, now it's leaking significantly.  Last I checked on Rockauto the rebuild kits weren't available anymore  (I do still have one more spare one I bought back in the day).  So this leads to my question ... is there  another pump option for an OEM setup?  I have probably 5 DSM pumps laying around.  Haven't looked, but maybe one of those will mount?  They run on power steering fluid though.  The starquests run on ATF.  That's another question ... is it the starquest steering box that requires the ATF or it is the pump?  I'm not super knowledgeable about steering system to be honest.  It's just kinda one of those parts of a car that exists to me and I don't mess with much ... but I'm tired of this leak.  

Curious what you guys have to say and what options I have. TIA.

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I can't help but I had this issue with my 2nd starion.  Rebuilt it with rock auto kit and it leaked, rebuilt it with a kit from autozone and it leaked, bought a reman from autozone, leaks after a year.

Starting to consider an electric rack conversion.

 

Edited by tux
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40 minutes ago, tux said:

I can't help but I had this issue with my 2nd starion.  Rebuilt it with rock auto kit and it leaked, rebuilt it with a kit from autozone and it leaked, bought a reman from autozone, leaks after a year.

Starting to consider an electric rack conversion.

 

Yeah, I know I've talked to a few members from here I know personally outside the forum and everyone has the same issue with the power steering pump leaking.

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12 minutes ago, techboy said:

Yeah, I know I've talked to a few members from here I know personally outside the forum and everyone has the same issue with the power steering pump leaking.

yea, it stinks, ATF eating away my driveway

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I know it's a hack fix, but I can say from experience that Lucas power steering stop leak works. My steering box was leaking, so I drained the reservoir, filled it with Lucas, and drove the car for a while. I thought it might just slow down the leak until I got a chance to fix it properly, but the leak completely stopped. I know it still needs to be fixed the right way someday, but the results were way better than I expected. The only downside is that it's noticeably thicker than ATF, so the pump is a little noisy in cold weather

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4 hours ago, techboy said:

My power steering pump is leaking ... again.  I rebuilt it once when I restored my car, and it was fine for a while and then it started to drip maybe 2 years ago, now it's leaking significantly.  Last I checked on Rockauto the rebuild kits weren't available anymore  (I do still have one more spare one I bought back in the day).  So this leads to my question ... is there  another pump option for an OEM setup?  I have probably 5 DSM pumps laying around.  Haven't looked, but maybe one of those will mount?  They run on power steering fluid though.  The starquests run on ATF.  That's another question ... is it the starquest steering box that requires the ATF or it is the pump?  I'm not super knowledgeable about steering system to be honest.  It's just kinda one of those parts of a car that exists to me and I don't mess with much ... but I'm tired of this leak.  

Curious what you guys have to say and what options I have. TIA.

I think it's the steering gear box that requires the ATF, not the pump

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2 hours ago, psu_Crash said:

I can tell you that if you put power steering fluid in that it will make a MESS! IIRC the ATF has better anti-foaming and high temp properties. That's why we use it. 

Call these guys. Send it off and you will not regret it ;)

https://redheadsteeringgears.com/

Crash ... the link you gave .. are you talking about having the box rebuilt, or the pump?  Or both?  My post is about the pump.  (knock on wood I haven't had any issues with my steering box yet).

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5 hours ago, psu_Crash said:

I can tell you that if you put power steering fluid in that it will make a MESS! IIRC the ATF has better anti-foaming and high temp properties. That's why we use it. 

Call these guys. Send it off and you will not regret it ;)

https://redheadsteeringgears.com/

These guys only rebuild the steering gearbox to my knowledge , not the pump.

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7 hours ago, tux said:

I can't help but I had this issue with my 2nd starion.  Rebuilt it with rock auto kit and it leaked, rebuilt it with a kit from autozone and it leaked, bought a reman from autozone, leaks after a year.

Starting to consider an electric rack conversion.

 

MB350395 Mitsubishi OEM Genuine SEAL KIT, P/S OIL PUMP | eBay

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I have run the lucas stop leak stuff for about 1600 miles now.  Not even a drip and it all works great.  I have never run anything else in it but it looked like at one point this car had a massive leak so I just started with the Lucas when I swapped the G54 out and got this car running.  

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21 hours ago, TexasQuest said:

These guys only rebuild the steering gearbox to my knowledge , not the pump.

That's what I thought too.

20 hours ago, TexasQuest said:

Thanks for the link Texas.  I may go over and grab this since they're getting hard to find.

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On 10/4/2022 at 3:20 PM, techboy said:

Crash ... the link you gave .. are you talking about having the box rebuilt, or the pump?  Or both?  My post is about the pump.  (knock on wood I haven't had any issues with my steering box yet).

Yeah ... i misread your issue. They just do the boxes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bought the rebuild kit Texas linked up.  Last time I used a kit I bought off of RockAuto.  This seems like an actually Mitsu one.  So maybe I'll have better luck.  Maybe when I rebuild this one I'll do a tutorial.  I still have a pdf document on how to do it that BuGG sent me from some other member.  But that info appears to be lost now.

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  • 1 month later...

Just an update to this thread ... the link Texas posted on eBay ... I purchased the rebuild kit ... waited about a month and then with no communication or warning I got a full refund.  Guess they are NLA.  

So, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do.  I have some DSM power steering pumps laying around.  I think I'm gonna see if there's not some way to make one of them work on the car using the OEM bracket over the winter.

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14 hours ago, TexasQuest said:

I've ordered parts from japan before that are NLA here. Nengun and Amayama are good sites.

Buy Genuine Mitsubishi MB350395 Seal Kit,p/s Oil Pump. Prices, fast shipping, photos, weight - Amayama

I've had mixed results w/ Nengun

Like charging shipping for an entire order when only 1/9 items were available.

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The bearing inside wears with time.   These PS pumps frustrate the heck out of me.   

I have the photos for the rebuild but I never put up a thread because the pump still leaked after rebuild...twice, even with a high end double lip seal.     Then I had another one that didn't leak but wouldn't build pressure.    For how simple these things are, they've given me so much grief.   

 

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11 hours ago, kev said:

The bearing inside wears with time.   These PS pumps frustrate the heck out of me.   

I have the photos for the rebuild but I never put up a thread because the pump still leaked after rebuild...twice, even with a high end double lip seal.     Then I had another one that didn't leak but wouldn't build pressure.    For how simple these things are, they've given me so much grief.   

 

I read a week ago or so where you replied with the same info about the wear on the bearing ... which is why I'm not interested in rebuilding this again. Seriously, I probably only have 1500-1000 miles on this rebuild. I'd like to find an alternate pump solution.

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I've always wanted to do a Prius electric power steering setup, planning to do it when I get around to the rack conversion. The Prius units provide the power assist in the steering column, and from what I understand, we have enough space under the dash to make it work. Requires some fabrication obviously, but I do remember a couple of guys in the Facebook groups who have done it successfully.

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