I usually know immediately upon startup if it's a good pump or not! It's either quiet right off the bat or sounds like a 30 year old dying PS pump right out of the box.

 

OK so it's pretty quiet, much less whiny than the one it replaced, but it's noticeably stiff and takes some effort to turn the wheel at slow speeds, for parallel parking for instance. At speed all is normal.

Probably needs a thorough bleeding. I didn't notice any air bubbles though while turning lock to lock in the driveway.

I've done the bleeding procedure on prior installations that involves the sketchy scenario of using an extension to crack the bleed screw on the steering box WHILE the engine is on. Would love to avoid that if possible. Any other bleeding procedures that are as effective?

Dumb question - but will the pump bleed itself with use?

 

I rebuilt mine several years ago with the kit that ACG mentions. I've had zero issues with it. I certainly don't remember doing any special bleeding procedures.

 

Lifting both front wheels off the ground, and with the steering wheel unlocked, and the engine off you simply turn lock to lock, and the motion of doing that will pull the fluid thru the box and any bubbles or air should move up to the reservoir. I just did a complete PS Box install, new lines, and new PS Pump on the 96 Eco Challenge, and without ever starting the truck I simply filled the system with fluid, with the wheels off the ground turned the wheels lock to lock, let it sit a bit, topped it off, and cranked it up. Not a sound from the system and any left over air was quickly removed.

 

Follow up - Pump died. Took it on a test drive this morning and it fully lost all steering assist at less than 10-ish mph. Nursed it home, bled AGAIN, and still no dice. The PS pump landscape in 2026 still looks as bleak as the covid era.

So I reinstalled the old one and all functionality is back to normal, albeit, just with a constant whine in the background.

Not sure what my next move will be. Might just wait for the AAE to be back in stock. It's the same one that Atlantic British sells, which is also out of stock.

 

It's not a novice job, but rebuilding your original isn't terribly difficult.

 

Any preferred rebuild kit? What about a rebuild would fix a whine? Just curious. I thought rebuilds were mostly to fix leaking gaskets.

 

Thought about going to an electric pump? Having gone through quite a few as well as struggling to turn the 35s on my classic when wheeling at times has me looking at switching to one of the electric options (dodge or volvo I think depending on if you want a horizontal or vertical pump)

 

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but are PS pumps a common failure point on these? I think my 04 is still on its original pump, but it is kinda noisy all the time, I just thought that was normal.. anyway just curious when they usually fail? I've got about 120k miles on mine

 

No they hardly ever fail. My original pump failed in 2021 via the spindle coming loose and shredding the belt. I've never heard of it happening to any other disco though. That set off a long and never-ending journey of finding a replacement pump that wasn't either DOA or noisy. I'm on my sixth pump and am just settling for noisy for now. If they "fail" it's just because of a gasket leak usually due to heat cycling.