This was unexpected. 11 months ago I replaced the original factory PS pump because it had gotten noisy and did a DIY on it. Pump was a Cardone 20-7953F from Advance with lifetime warranty. all was well until saturday afternoon.

I was working down at deer camp and hooked up the trailer and was turning around. turned the steering wheel all the way to where it made a little whine sound. backed up some, started forward again and didn't have any power steering. wth. opened the hood and looked - belt was off. wth. started to put the belt back on and noticed the ps pulley was sticking out a couple of inches farther than it should be. wth. pushed the pulley back in and put the belt on it and tried starting the engine. ps pump immediately spit the pulley back out and threw the belt off. oh hell. i'm a long ways from home...

luckily for me, i had several other friends and trucks there and an Advance about 15 miles away. i was able to get a new pump under warranty, fluid, and rent the pulley removal/install tool. i had to buy an 18 mm wrench. I had everything else I needed in the tool box and was able to change the pump down there in the woods. If I had been by myself I'd still be walking.

It looks like the shaft twisted in half at the splines. I assume the spline are where the impeller engages. i don't know why it broke. maybe the bearing seized. maybe the impeller broke. i don't know. there's a red mark on the splines. i guess that was a QA mark.

anyone else ever seen this? what caused it?

 

Pump seized. Either something failed inside the pump, or it sucked in something it couldn't digest, and jammed up. Might not be a bad idea to thoroughly flush your power steering system.....