i did that earlier and it seemed about the same. i was told to turn the steering wheel back and forth for a while to bleed the system. dont know if thats right or not.

 

You may still just have air in the system.

Raise the front wheels off the ground. Start the engine. Make sure power steering fluid is full. Turn the wheel from lock to lock several times. Check the fluid. If it's all foamy, shut of the truck, and give it a half hour or so to settle down. Keep repeating the process until you don't get foamy fluid anymore, and the system doesn't make rude noises when turning the wheel.

 

"It could be air in the steering box or pump".

"How did you go about bleeding the air out of the system?"

That's such a small hydraulic loop that I doubt it still has air in it; air tends to get out of hydraulics pretty fast, unlike brakes. As soon as the air gets pushed into the reservoir, it's gone. Air still in the system does have to be ruled out, but the pump would probably have been growling all this time.

I'm still a little fuzzy on the chain of events here; the steering was hard before the steering box was replaced, but the steering box was replaced because the OP hit a bump and determined that the steering box had locked up? Doesn't quite add up.

 

Power steering pumps are super cheap. Just get a new one. It would make good peace of mind anyways.... especially if your steering gear locked up. You would have to ask why that locked up if it was properly lubricated. Sounds like the pump could have been dying the whole time which then took out the steering gear.

 

True, its a short loop, but, the initial bleeding tends to whip the air into the fluid, giving a nice froth. That mix doesn't work well for the assist. The air whipped into the fluid is still compressible.

 

Quite right. as usual. I've had more than my fair share of froth; I was thinking more of my hydraulic systems that have reservoirs from 10 to 50 gallons, where foaming is pretty much a non-issue. Seems to me though that even when the fluid is "frothy", you still get more power out of the pump than what the OP is describing; and he hasn't reported any of the "growling" from the pump that would be involved.

I'm liking Hans' theory: "You would have to ask why that (the box) locked up if it was properly lubricated. Sounds like the pump could have been dying the whole time which then took out the steering gear". Sounded unusual that hitting a bump could cause a steering box to lock up, unless it was in pretty strange shape to begin with. And come to think of it, I've never heard of one "locking up" at all.

It would be interesting to perform an autopsy on the old steering box.

 

"today i was goin through the corn field to pick up some of my goose decoys and i hit a big bump and now my steering is is really stiff. its way harder that with no power steering, even when im moving i have to pull on one side really hard to get it to turn. it almost feels like its binding. i checked my power steering lines and had no damage, had plenty of fluid. i checked to see if anything was bent or broken and couldnt find anything. tie rods look good, ball joints look good. i was thinking that it maybe rack and pinion but ive never had it go out on me so i dont know what its like. or steering gear? thanks in advance for help." OP's Original question in previous thread.

Since he was going through a corn field ain't no telling what he could have hit or how big the "bump" was or if it wasn't a "pot hole" he drove through.

 

Thanks Stewie. I think OP's guess that there's a problem with the rack and pinion can be ruled out since it seems to me that none of our trucks have it - do they?

My newest theory, which still involves the power steering pump: OP hits big bump, jolt sends "shock wave" of hydraulic pressure through steering box back to pump, whose poppets were already just about to pop. Pump kaput, extremely hard steering, pump needs to be replaced. Seems quite possible that steering box was OK all along.

Seems very likely that OP was focused on a "binding" or "locking" condition based on what I take to be an incorrect assumption that a vehicle that has lost power steering pressure will steer as easily as a vehicle with manual steering.

***

Just found this:

I have a 55 plate BMW 325i sport, i went over a rather large square speed bump a few days ago, and caught the underside of my car. ... after a few mins i could hear a grinding noise and the steering wheel now judders going round corners, and the steering is real heavy, My mechanic friend said the power steering pump has gone."

 

yea but his gear box itsself was locked up. the bump could of destryoed the pump as you said but it also could of been what screwd up his box. i had to replae my pump when i replaced my gearbox, because my old pump couldnt turn the new box for some reason

 

"the OP's problem started in another post guys. he hit a bump and steering locked up. he took off his draglink and column and found the gear box was locked up"

"yea but his gear box itself was locked up. the bump could of destroyed the pump as you said but it also could of been what screwed up his box. i had to replace my pump when i replaced my gearbox, because my old pump couldnt turn the new box for some reason"

I just haven't seen any truly compelling evidence that the OP's steering box was indeed "locked up". Can you even get the gears in a steering box to turn by trying to move the pitman arm? I think you're pushing a little gear with a big gear doing that; a perfectly good steering box might not even budge.

I definitely could be wrong, and his steering box mght have been frozen solid for some odd reason, it's just that I don't think that's all that common, and I again say that I think the OP might have misdiagnosed the problem by expecting his truck to steer like a truck that has manual steering when his PS pump went south.

Like I said, I'd be interested to see what that old steering box looks like inside.

***

OK, just jacked up the front end of my B2500; the main reason was that I was sitting here thinking how relatively easy it is to move the wheels back and forth (and of course rotate the steering box) by grabbing a tire. Then I tried just moving the pitman arm, and it was much, much harder because of the physics involved; much less leverage. Again, I could definitely be way off base here, but I still think it's possible the OP translated the difficulty of turning the steering box by the pitman arm into "frozen gearbox". If it truly was frozen, my apologies. At any rate, the new PS pump should do the trick. (And at least I just discovered that my idler arm is shot).