Power steering pump installed

Well I finally got my new "refurbished" power steering pump after waiting almost 2 weeks for one. Waiting for a new one was out of the question because they were on back order with out an ETA for the 5.4L.
Had a brand new one put in under warranty and lasted 350 miles and the dealer "Roy O'Brien Ford" wouldn't replace it after I told them what the Ford Performance guys at Havoc told me that the system was most
likely not flushed correctly or purged of all the air.
They decided to blame my wheels and tires as the problem.
Screw it!
I decided to take on the task myself because it didn't look that hard.
Spent about 2 hours (taking my time) tearing it apart and carefully draining the fluid to check it out. Drained it into a container to find it full of crap.
Removed the reservoir as well to see the screen filter full of junk/ fine metal particles and coating the bottom of the reservoir.
Got a pulley puller(Free from auto store) and removed it while on the truck.
Removed my oil filter to get access to the 2 bolts holding on the pump.
Removed the threaded hose and the large feed hose.
Popped right out no problems.
Then I decided to purchase a ICON reservoir and cooler kit from RSIWORKS (Great guy to deal with by the way..lol)
Installing it was very simple and the quality is top notch I must say.
Yesterday I got the pump and spent a couple hours installing it back on. Basically reversed the process of taking it apart. I left the return hose off (small one) and filled the reservoir with fresh fluid while my son
turned the steering wheel back and forth from lock to lock, while the fluid drain I kept the reservoir full not to allow air to enter the line.
This pushed the old crap fluid out while pushing the new fluid in.
All this was done first with the engine off and the front of the truck was off the ground sitting on jack stands by the way. I pushed roughly 4 quarts of Mercon V through the lines
making sure it was all clear of contaminants.
Then I installed the return hose back onto the new PSS cooler from Icon and started pushing out any air that was left in the system.
Basically I had my son and I cranking the steering wheel back and forth again from lock to lock about a 100 times.
I would also turn on the engine to have the pump cycling the fluid then turn it back off while still continuing the process until we stopped seeing any air bubbles at all come out the reservoir.
Finally took it for a test drive and she's working like a charm, let's hope this one lasts.

I just also want to thank Wiz for giving me some advise and checking on his Ford bible for some install procedures.
Thanks Keith.

Is the PS pump different on the 5.4 vs. 6.2? I'm glad I went with the Icon myself however next PS pump failure will be a Howe PS...

Trick_Raptor said:

Is the PS pump different on the 5.4 vs. 6.2? I'm glad I went with the Icon myself however next PS pump failure will be a Howe PS...

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I'm assuming they are.
I thought about going the Howe way as well but for $95 shipped and a few hours of my time I couldn't beat the price. lol

No pics of the screen and all the crap?

Does having larger tires make the PS pump work harder in a way?

Agree that the dealer tech just installed it without giving a shit and with the back order the dealer sounds like they just didn't want to deal with it. Have they replaced it before?

RDFTS said:

No pics of the screen and all the crap?

Does having larger tires make the PS pump work harder in a way?

Agree that the dealer tech just installed it without giving a shit and with the back order the dealer sounds like they just didn't want to deal with it. Have they replaced it before?

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I only thought about taking pics of the crap after I filled the jug with 4 other quarts. Old reservoir screen I washed out with brake cleaner and decided to upgrade to the Icon one. It's clean now.
Im still running 35" tires just mud tires and have maybe 30% tread left.
So they probably weight less then new stocks now but you know any excuse to get out of replacing their screw up.
This was their second one they replaced, the other one was working but it had just a tiny whine on it and they said they would just put a new one on even though it still worked.
It had maybe 15k miles on it but still running strong, wish I would have just told them to leave it alone.

IRONMAN said:

I only thought about taking pics of the crap after I filled the jug with 4 other quarts. Old reservoir screen I washed out with brake cleaner and decided to upgrade to the Icon one. It's clean now.
Im still running 35" tires just mud tires and have maybe 30% tread left.
So they probably weight less then new stocks now but you know any excuse to get out of replacing their screw up.
This was their second one they replaced, the other one was working but it had just a tiny whine on it and they said they would just put a new one on even though it still worked.
It had maybe 15k miles on it but still running strong, wish I would have just told them to leave it alone.

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All I can say is, Wow! I can't believe that about the tires then because does a dealer really think that everyone who owns an F-150 will only use stock tires. What does a new PS pump normally cost? Sounds like its not that difficult of a job and worth the time to make sure it's done right by doing it yourself. And I agree, that RSIWORKS guy is awesome to work with.

Excellent, thanks for posting your write up with pics. Have you considered adding an inline ps filter on the return line? Very simple to do and cheap insurance.

I've got the same pss reservoir with cooler, too, and at Havoc, my pump was whining at me pretty good, and this was with stock wheels and tires. Was only about 6k mikes on the truck, too.

Doing some looking at the system after getting back home, it looked like the large feed hose from the reservoir to the pump had partially collapsed due to being too long, making the turn down to the pump. I don't remember seeing that during install, so it probably didn't happen right away... perhaps as the hose got hot and soft. I'm unsure as to whether this was causing starvation to the pump at Havoc, as it was not completely collapsed, and the pump would whine whether I was turning the wheel or not. Other than the noise, there were no signs of issues, so it might not have been starving.

Anyway, I've since trimmed and moved the hose a little so it doesn't collapse in the bend (less bend). The pump has since been silent, but I've not worked it even close to as hard as I did at Havoc, so it's not a good test to confirm. So, you may want to keep an eye on that hose.

Gumart1 said:

Excellent, thanks for posting your write up with pics. Have you considered adding an inline ps filter on the return line? Very simple to do and cheap insurance.

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I might do this, where can I get one/ part number?

Zeus said:

I've got the same pss reservoir with cooler, too, and at Havoc, my pump was whining at me pretty good, and this was with stock wheels and tires. Was only about 6k mikes on the truck, too.

Doing some looking at the system after getting back home, it looked like the large feed hose from the reservoir to the pump had partially collapsed due to being too long, making the turn down to the pump. I don't remember seeing that during install, so it probably didn't happen right away... perhaps as the hose got hot and soft. I'm unsure as to whether this was causing starvation to the pump at Havoc, as it was not completely collapsed, and the pump would whine whether I was turning the wheel or not. Other than the noise, there were no signs of issues, so it might not have been starving.

Anyway, I've since trimmed and moved the hose a little so it doesn't collapse in the bend (less bend). The pump has since been silent, but I've not worked it even close to as hard as I did at Havoc, so it's not a good test to confirm. So, you may want to keep an eye on that hose.

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I made sure my hoses had very little bends, I even shortened the return hose a lot.
This was all an excuse for the dealer cause they know they screwed up an didn't want to pay out of their pocket.

---------- Post added at 04:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:29 PM ----------

RDFTS said:

All I can say is, Wow! I can't believe that about the tires then because does a dealer really think that everyone who owns an F-150 will only use stock tires. What does a new PS pump normally cost? Sounds like its not that difficult of a job and worth the time to make sure it's done right by doing it yourself. And I agree, that RSIWORKS guy is awesome to work with.

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My power steering pump was $95 with a $70 core charge that I will get back once I send it in.
I believe I saw a new one on Tasca for the same price but no eta so I looked elsewhere.

IRONMAN said:

This was all an excuse for the dealer cause they know they screwed up an didn't want to pay out of their pocket.

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I got that, but it seems like they would have just done another warranty claim to Ford to pay for swapping it again.