Just like the guy that builds the wiring harness under the hood, never met the guy that builds it under the dash.

 

"lever arm" steering? Never heard it called that. That truck must have been a 4wd, the rack n pinion truck a 2wd. pump don't care, same pump would run both. I THINK newer pumps are the same as yours except for the pulley which can be swapped....

 

Hi everyone, I'm getting an education by reading the mail here.

I installed the '93 junkyard pump today and everything went well. The only problem was that tomorrow is payday so today I didn't have enough money to buy a High Pressure hose assembly, so I improvised and naturally my jury rig didn't hold the pressure and blew out. It was great while it lasted. So tomorrow I will high tail it to NAPA and get a proper HP hose assembly. I'm sure that will wrap it up. Have a good night. I'll post a follow up after it is complete. Regards, Jim

 

Well, there's good news and bad news. Good news first. When I got the proper HP hose assembly, it went right in and didn't leak. The bad news is that after a few hours of driving around, the power steering went away. .First of all, there were power steering fluid stripes on my driveway. After checking I noticed a leak from the passenger side rack assembly. It's coming out from the rubber boot. What's my next course of action?

 

Replace the rack.

In the meantime, disconnect the high pressure hoses and the belt.

RwP

 

Thanks RalphP, I guess I should replace the tie rod ends while I'm at it?

 

I'd check them out. Also the ball joints. And the control arm bushings.

Hrm ...

My experience was that the Cardone racks I tried (one on the Dakota, one on the Cougar) didn't last that well. I currently have well over 100,000 on my Rack Doctor unit on my Dakota, and over 60,000 on the Cougar; both are running fine. I DID just replace the inner tie rods on the Dakota though; they didn't last but about 100,000 miles.

rackdoctor.net

I also just put some ProForged tie rod ends on my Dakota; they were well built, well finished, and feel great driving. Thankfully, there's more than one good brand. Not so thankfully, there's also a lot of crapola out there; stick with the known brands as much as possible (ProForged is mostly made in Taiwan, but started out with superior suspension parts for Cameros and Chevettes ... YMMV, natch.)

I also used Energy Suspension poly control arm bushings; they've held up very well. But since I did them, I've discovered that Prothane black are graphite impregnated to reduce the "EEKookEEKook" poly can get. (I spray mine with a PTFE-based spray every oil and filter change to avoid that; but if I were to redo, I'd do Prothane black for that reason alone.)

RwP

 

The only assembly in town is at NAPA and they call it the "NAPA product line" (Which is probably Cardone). It's $95 and if i buy the outer tie rod ends it qualifies for the 3 item discount of 20% which makes the tie rod ends free. The odometer on this Dakota reads 129K so they're probably OK, but I might as well do it now.

I'll buy the parts today and start the job tomorrow morning. I'll need to be done by 6:PM so my wife can go to work, so I'll leave the ball joints and control arm bushings for another day. Thanks for the suggestions tho.

 

Napa is cardone. I worked at a shop and got the same part from Napa, and AutoZone same cardone sticker, different box lol.

 

Thanks Rebel, several factors involved. I need to get 'r done because my wife's arm is really painful, it's the only one in town, it's the least expensive and I'm on a budget. So Cardone is the best choice for now. Chances are it will outlive me anyways.