Well, this will be the second time replacing this Power Steering pump (I have 142,000 miles on this truck - it is a 2004 Dodge RAM 2500 5.9L Cummins). It is leaking all over the driveway and the PS fluid is dripping into the pulley it sits by, going through the belt and all over the whole thing underneath the hood. Not good.

I had the mechanic do it the first time around at about 70,000 miles when it was leaking. I have been doing some research and think I may have a go at this. I have followed this youtube video on this so far:
I have watched all three parts to this youtube vid and it is quite good. However! I have a small dilema when I crawl under the truck to take a looksee... The guy in this vid says the power steering pump (and the pulley and reservoir it is connected to) will just fall out the bottom when you disconnect the three bolts that hold this thing in place. Uh, yeah that won't happen unless the steering gear box is also pulled...

My Chilton's manual for this truck says like the hot air intake manifold and another thing I can't pronounce has to be pulled off the top of the engine in order to take this power steering pump assembly out the top. The thing I can;t pronounce calls for decompressing the AC lines to do it... Ouch.

I like neither choice here... Do any of you have any experience pulling this Power Steering Pump out without disassembling anything else? If I can figure this out, then life may be ok here as the rest looks pretty straightforward...

I also have the Big D's offroad steering stabilizer hooked on the gearbox end that holds the pitman arm and this whole thing is bolted to the frame. I really don't want to have to pull that and the steering gear box just to have to get to this PS pump.

Thanks in advance for any replies anybody can give me!

 

Ok, so I actually have been looking at this Chilton's manual closer for this procedure and these are the two items the manual says have to be removed (in order to get the PS Pump Assembly out the top of the truck):

1.) Intake Air Heater Manifold
2.) Left Side Intercooler Duct

Well, the manual has you go to different sections of it for info to remove these two items.

I am assuming with the intake air heater manifold that the 4 bolts that hold it down need to be removed and this manifold will just come off?

***The part that kind of bothers me is the section of the Manual for the Left Side Intercooler Duct removal... The removal of this duct is buried in the section of the manual for replacing the whole intercooler itself. Well, the first thing the manual says in this section is that the AC system needs to be depressurized. I am wondering if this has to happen just to get the left - side cooler duct removed only? I am really just wondering if the AC system is going to blow up in my face if I go to remove this left-side intercooler duct?

Anybody with any ideas for this? I actually think I will be able to do this...

 

Anybody with any ideas on this? I went out there today and noticed a big black box bolted to the engine block on the fan side and right next to the intake air heat manifold. To be honest, if I could remove this, it would be even cleaner to get that power steering pump out of there. So, what is this black box and can I remove it? It is on the engine block with 3 bolts...