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Power steering pump..can it be turned inside reservoir
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Power steering pump..can it be turned inside reservoir
I need to replace the power steering pump in my 87 firebird. Tried to order a replacement from Napa and it looks quite similar but the bolt pattern on the back is turned a bit from my original part( and won't fit in as is). I there a way to turn that pump slightly inside the reservoir to match my old pump?
pump got loud recently but it was still pumping(didn't seem to be air in the lines) . I was just nervous about how hard it might be to rebuild without knowing exactly what model/brand I had-- couldn't find any numbers to identify. Thanks for the link.
Re: Power steering pump mounting plate..will it turn?
Looks to me like there's more wrong with that replacement pump (the thing you're calling "plate") besides just that the reservoir (the big sheet metal thing wrapped around it) is clocked wrong. Looks like the rotor cavity of the replacement one is also clocked wrong, such that even if you took off your old reservoir and put it on the other pump, the pulley would end up in a different place.
In a word, it's exactly the same except completely different. IOW the wrong pump.
Take it back and get the right one. Or, as suggested, rebuild your existing one. IFF the reservoir is undamaged; specifically, if it doesn't leeeeeek around the outside of the pump body. That kind of leeeeeek can almost NEVER be repaired.
Re: Power steering pump..can it be turned inside reservoir
I dont know how to delete this thread
Spoiler
so I will just share what I found, in case it helps someone in the future. Lares 12538 ended up being a pump/reservoir that fit in my front end(positioned the way I needed)
Last edited by CL70; Apr 30, 2025 at 08:39 PM.
Reason: Update
Re: Power steering pump..can it be turned inside reservoir
Don't delete threads. It's just as useful to learn from mistakes
I'm a bit late to this discussion, but for future readers, this is an old saginaw PS pump. It's the same basic pump from the 60's to early 2000's. The pump is the round "insert". The reservoir is a stamped sheetmetal tank and is often vehicle specific. To swap the pump/res, remove the 2-3 bolts on the backside and the adapter valve (1" nut, very tight). Then pop the reservoir off
To replace, make sure the O-rings are correctly positioned and not pinched/torn. Then slide the res on. If an o-ring is missing or not correctly positioned, it will leak like crazy
In most cases, it's easier to swap entire PS pump/res units, but some low production vehicles don't have readily available reservoirs and require swapping the tank
Be sure to prime the pump after replacing
