Power Steering Cooler. Do I need it?

[Bill-W]

Just got finished replacing the steering gear due wear and a seal leak. Feels much tighter now! Got a nice one from a low mileage "Cash for Clunkers" F150 at Pull-A-Part yesterday.

After the job was all finished, fired it up and out poured my 3/4qt of brand new ATF strait onto the driveway. The cooler on the return hose had been rubbing a against itself and wore holes in the steel, moving it around must have been all it needed to fail.

Not being able to find one in stock tonight I cut out the bad one and bent it around so the 3/8" hose goes direct to the pump.

Do I need the cooler? If I do can I just use an old tranny cooler? Are the coolers the same for all "F" trucks or do I have to have one from a Diesel? I mostly drive around town unloaded with very little towing but I live in the south and don't want to do this job again once it is done.

Any and all suggestions appreciated!

 

[pybyr]

Can't give you info on the cooler- but I wonder, while it's under surgery, whether one of those good grade transmission cooler line filters might be worth installing?

 

[tknomaj]

honda toyota and other are putting the inline trans filters on their p/s units as part of factory repairs so the answer is yes i have a in line filter in my truck

 

[jperecko]

not absolutely necessary... as in you can temporarily bypass it... but install some kind of cooler as soon as you can. It keeps your pump happy in the long run.

 

[RWF350]

In the south I would keep it. On my 69 f100 the ps cooler looks like a miniature tranny cooler mounted right at the pump. Personally, I would not be afraid of the the tranny cooler or filter in your temps. If the flow is too slow you will know real quick, ie: pump noise, hard steering, etc. In colder weather the fluid might have a hard time reaching operating temps. P.S. When I lived in La, I was going to do this myself. In Mo I'm worried about the cold temp operation.