Power Steering Line Leak

[adamsanders]

I noticed my low pressure power steering fitting was seaping a little right at the input in the box. The box is a new Motorcraft unit. The fitting is good and tight. Is there supposed to be an o-ring in this connection anywhere. I also don’t see this hose listed on any parts stores website.

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[Cainon]

Mine is doing the exact same thing.

 

[Philip1]

They are a flare fitting similar to the brake lines just bigger. There is no oring there only metal to metal. If it leaks, you can apply a thin coat of silicone or other sealant on the flare after through cleaning and it can help.

 

[Cubey]

I noticed my low pressure power steering fitting was seaping a little right at the input in the box. The box is a new Motorcraft unit. The fitting is good and tight. Is there supposed to be an o-ring in this connection anywhere. I also don’t see this hose listed on any parts stores website.

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Does your pump look like this and have a hose barb on the back pointing down? If so, that's the return line.

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My 85 E350 RV has a different style pump, but it has a hose barb for return like that, using 3/8" hose. At the pump, you just shove the hose on the barb and use a hose clamp. The 85 E350's proper return line looks like this. No seals/o-rings, just a bare hose for the pump end and a flare fitting at the gear. The yellow cap is to help avoid fluid loss when changing the hose.

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I couldn't get the proper return line to go on the gear due to the funky bends in the steel line and trying to line it up at the right angle when reaching down into the van engine bay, so I resorted to buying an "Edelmann Hose Fitting 822660" which adapts the gear's flared fitting to a 3/8" hose barb:

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It swivels and allows for super easy installation in such a tight space, and now I only ever have to replace the 3/8" hose and hose clamps if they start to leak. No special return line needed. Just make sure you route the hose away from any hot, sharp, or moving surfaces. In my RV, that's very easy to do.

Here it is installed. No leaks. (Yeah I need to zip tie it up away from the rag joint on the steering shaft)

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(edited to fix me saying pump when i meant gear several times)

 

[yARIC008]

Probably should take the fitting lose, inspect it, make sure it's not somehow boogered up. If it looks good, put it back on and tighten the crap out of it. I bet if you get a small torque amplifier on there you can get another half a turn out of it. I had uninstalled/reinstalled these lines probably about 10 times on the van in the past two years, and the first few times I thought it was tight but would leak. I finally got another wrench on the of the first wrench and she got tighter and stopped leaking. Obviously try to use a boxed end wrench so you don't ruin the fitting.

 

[adamsanders]

I like this, I’ll probably go this route to get rid of the that little low pressure metal line.

Does your pump look like this and have a hose barb on the back pointing down? If so, that's the return line.

You must be registered for see images attach

My 85 E350 RV has a different style pump, but it has a hose barb for return like that, using 3/8" hose. At the pump, you just shove the hose on the barb and use a hose clamp. The 85 E350's proper return line looks like this. No seals/o-rings, just a bare hose for the pump end and a flare fitting at the gear. The yellow cap is to help avoid fluid loss when changing the hose.

You must be registered for see images attach

I couldn't get the proper return line to go on the gear due to the funky bends in the steel line and trying to line it up at the right angle when reaching down into the van engine bay, so I resorted to buying an "Edelmann Hose Fitting 822660" which adapts the gear's flared fitting to a 3/8" hose barb:

You must be registered for see images attach

It swivels and allows for super easy installation in such a tight space, and now I only ever have to replace the 3/8" hose and hose clamps if they start to leak. No special return line needed. Just make sure you route the hose away from any hot, sharp, or moving surfaces. In my RV, that's very easy to do.

Here it is installed. No leaks. (Yeah I need to zip tie it up away from the rag joint on the steering shaft)

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(edited to fix me saying pump when i meant gear several times)

 

[Cubey]

I like this, I’ll probably go this route to get rid of the that little low pressure metal line.

Yep, the one I bought wouldn't thread in. It kept trying to cross thread no matter what. No idea why. I cut the steel line shorter and it threaded in fine so it was just hard with the weird bends and how it runs under the pressure steel line at the gear. I tried putting a hose on the cut off piece of steel line but without a hose barb, it was leaking severely. The flare to barb fitting was only about $8 (ebay) so I bought that.

 

[adamsanders]

I finally got around to getting under my truck and looking to do this. This low pressure line off the steering box looks like it just runs directly to the odd cooler thing on the cross member - no connections. Did you cut the metal line?

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Yep, the one I bought wouldn't thread in. It kept trying to cross thread no matter what. No idea why. I cut the steel line shorter and it threaded in fine so it was just hard with the weird bends and how it runs under the pressure steel line at the gear. I tried putting a hose on the cut off piece of steel line but without a hose barb, it was leaking severely. The flare to barb fitting was only about $8 (ebay) so I bought that.

 

[Cubey]

I finally got around to getting under my truck and looking to do this. This low pressure line off the steering box looks like it just runs directly to the odd cooler thing on the cross member - no connections. Did you cut the metal line?

Cooler thing? No idea. Mine just goes from the gear box to the pump with the very short steel line+hose I showed above. I tried cutting the steel line in the pic close to the gear box but as I mentioned, it leaked when I tried to put a hose directly on it, since it lacked a hose barb. Maybe flaring it would have worked well enough but too much hassle.

So I did away with the entire proper return line entirely and used the #822660 fitting and some 3/8" fuel line from the fitting to the pump.

I'd have to go outside and look since I can't recall off hand how far away the gear box is from the rad fan on the truck, but it's pretty close on the RV's van chassis.

Now that you mention the steel line being for cooling, maybe even the very short steel line is meant to help cool the fluid when it's going back to the pump. Well, the pressure hose has steel line so hopefully that'll be enough cooling. If it causes problems, I'll have to try again replacing the line with a proper one again. The stupid way it runs though, you have to unhook the pressure line to run the steel return line under it. It's a REALLY stupid way they routed it. I'd rather get a tiny oil cooler and run it in-line between the gear box and pump. It would do a far better job of cooling the power steering fluid too.

 

[Cubey]

Oh but I should also mention, I'm pretty sure the gear box is closer to the radiator/fan on the van chassis, so it probably gets better airflow direcly on the gearbox for cooling. It's almost touching the PS pump.

The plastic cap is the PS pump, and you can see the steering shaft going down to the gear box, behind the coiling brake line gong up to the brake MC.

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Here is a further away shot. The gear box is directly under the brake MC. The PS pump is almost directly under the cruise control servo. So yeah, it's all very close to the fan.

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