when I bought my car back in Decmeber the guy I bought it from said the A/C worked, but it the compressor had a vibration, so he drained the freon.

That didn't really make sense on any level, so I bought the car assuming that I would need to replace the compressor, which I just did.last week

Here's the strange thing.... there actually is a vibration, but it's coming from the power steering pump. It only happens at low idle, but when I either turn the wheel or accelerate a little, it goes away.

It is rather noisy, and I was wondering if anybody else has had or currently has this problem.

 

Is it more of a rattle than a vibration? If it is, it's only going to get worse, as the parts inside the pump are crapping out.

 

both my mechanic and I would describe it more like a vibration

 

How much lateral play is in the shaft (not in and out of the pump, side to side)? Since you've said it's noisy, I would like to think that it's still going to have to be replaced as it's still going to get progressively worse until it either locks up or fails in some other manner (2 of mine have failed in this way now).

 

i'll have to get out there and tug on it when the engine is cool. I've owned Gm cars for 25 years, and I've never seen a PS pump go bad, I thought they were bulletproof

 

Chances are it's a bad bearing or something to that effect, probably just replace the whole thing.

 

Try changing the fluid first with GM fluid. That might do the trick. Otherwise it sounds like it would be the flow control valve. These unthread from the back of the pump and is what the high pressure line is threaded into.

There aren't any bearings in the pump assembly such as a ball bearing. The front shaft rides on a bushing. GM P/S pumps are fairly bulletproof.

RBob.

 

My 87 camaro has this problem. You can hear a slightly loud vibrating noise around the pump while the car is running when you accelerate the noise disappears. Also on my car when u hold the pump or the bracket it stops.

Try to hold the top of the pump with somewhat force with a glove on of course see if it stops. I think my car has a loose bolt or something.

 

4 years later... I finally got around to figuring out what the problem was. You know that bracket that holds the pump to engine? Mine was missing. that's right, not even there.

ok, not a big deal, I had two of those brackets lying around. Just put one on, right?

Wrong, the bolts that hold the bracket to the engine have been broken off flush, and it's in a really bad place to drill them out without pulling the engine. It's made it this long, it's just going to have to make it a while longer until I change engines.

 

Took you four years to look at the simple power steering system brother? lol...damn...

You can always weld the thing in place.

 

well when a bracket is missing... It's not that obvious... you know? hard to see what's NOT there until you pull it off the car and see that's there's studs without anything attached to it

 

How is the rear bracket? Does it even have one installed? TBH, I only have the little water pump bolt in the aluminum bracket right now and the steel one in back is bolted to the engine block (upper bolt of where the mechanical fuel pump would be if it had one).

 

it's the rear bracket that was missing.

 

Well, luckily those are easy to find... Trying to find a non-A/C one is like trying to find a needle in a haystack .

:edit: There is no way the upper rear bracket bolt broke off flush with the engine... It's the lower bolt for the #2 exhaust manifold connection. All you really need to do is swap out one of the A/C compressor upper bracket to plenum bolts for that one, bolt the rear PS bracket to the pump, and put a nut on the bracket and stud. Or, remove that bolt from the exhaust manifold and put a long M8x1.25 stud in there, a nut between the manifold and the PS bracket, and another nut on the outside...

 

I'll try that for the exhaust manifold one. It doesn't seem that one is broken off, but I couldn't find a stud that would go in there. It might be broken off past the manifold

By the way, there's nothing in that hole at all right now, at least that I can see... it might be broken off

 

Ok, that worked, at least on the upper bolt. Thanks maverick, I happened to have a stud in my spare parts that was perfect for the job

hopefully having at least one bolt back there will help the situation, and like Chris said, I can always weld it if needed

 

It would be pretty difficult to weld the bracket to anything back there since everything you would need to weld the bracket to is cast iron... Unless you plan on welding the bracket to the exhaust manifold bolt...

 

well hopefully the single bolt will do the job. It certainly has a better chance of working than the bracket being totally missing

Thanks for your help, I'm so glad I had the correct stud lying in a box (and I knew where to find it)

 

Well, let me just say that the manifold bolt was the only one on my rear bracket for years until I discovered the second hole was in the engine block. Apparently someone didn't put it in when the engine was swapped.

 

I'm glad I'm changing the water pump at the same time the power steering pump is off. It looks like with the bracket there it makes it more difficult to swing out of the way

Since you only used one bolt on the bracket, let me ask you... Do you think I should leave the bracket on the pump and then attach them both to the Manifold as a set, or put the bracket on the manifold first and then attach the pump to it?

 

Bracket on manifold... Swing the pump into it and put the nuts on the back. Right now, my pump only has the engine block bolt in the rear bracket, because the upper hole isn't in line with the exhaust bolt pattern on the 3100 heads. It's a lot easier to locate the bracket in relation to the engine with the bracket off the pump. It's a bit of a pain to get the nuts on the back of the pump, but it's doable.

And yes, the design of the front bracket is rather dumb. It turns what would normally be a 20 minute water pump job into a 1-hour job.

 

ok get this... I put it all together tonight.
Turns out not only was the rear bracket missing entirely, but the farthest outside tip of the front bracket had broken. Of 5 possible mounting points, I was using two, both on one side, in the front, and right next to each other.

it's amazing the whole thing didn't come apart on me at any time.

Fixed now! haven't turned on the AC, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't fixed

 

I had the same problem. Come to find out the manifold stud on the rear ps bracket was broken off. Caused the front aluminum bracket to crack after rattling itself to death. Never fixed the rear bracket until recently though. Welded the aluminum bracket back together, now its cracked on the side of the weld with a new crack starting at the bottom.

I removed my ac, so I took a piece of angle iron, bent it and drilled a couple holes in it. It goes from the upper rear stud on the ps pump, to the ac bracket hole in the aluminum ps bracket. Its solid now but I still gotta weld those cracks in the aluminum bracket :/

For me, not having the rear ps pump bracket will lead to eventual death of the aluminum bracket, lol.

 

Just confirmed... for the first time since I've owned the car, I can turn on the AC without the PS pump creating a horrible noise from vibration.

Nothing like the sound of silence...