Messages

I would put tubes in them. GPster

How would you license something like that in Ohio? GPster

The Jeepster is a re-bodied 1987 GMC S15 2WD  with a 2.5L 4 cylinder engine. The wiring for this engine is mostly stock with most of the accessories deleted. It wouldn't start the other day and after cranking it for quite a while it finally caught and ran poorly. I put it in gear thinking that it would clear-up but only got about a block and a half till it stumbled like it was out of gas and it quit. I can usually hear the fuel pump run for the four seconds when I first turn the key on but I couldn't hear it for the traffic on the street. The fuel filter it new, the pump is new, the fuel tank was full and the relay was changed last spring. Thanks to AAA I got it back home. Turns out the relay was bad. I started out with a new relay 3 years ago when this build got far enough along to start the engine Two years ago I had it in a transmission shop for a check-up and the relay quit during the starting/stopping of the check. And this newer relay quit the other day. Is this odd? We had an '87 Olds with this engine in it and it went 10 years and 130,000 miles for us on the original relay. I can't see anything in the wiring that I might have eliminated that would cause this relay to fail or do I just put a spare relay in my toolbox. Now you all have something new to read GPster

Well, I got my renewed drivers license today. No new restrictions and now I can drive after dark again. Drove the Jeepster some yesterday and I parked it in the driveway last night. No oil spots under it. Things are looking up. GPster

Well, it's not as bad as we originally thought. They (Liberty) are not canceling our liability insurance but rather an umbrella policy we have with them. They must think I'm more likely to be hit by an uninsured driver. And my eye doctor says that my vision that is corrected to 20-25 is better than the requirement. I drove the Jeepster today and still no leaks. GPster

I used fittings from Summit to go from the pump (14mm ?) to a 6an Redhorse Teflon hose, eliminated the switch and went to the steering box (18mm ?). I finally got the hose ends on the length of hose that I wanted last night. With the problems that I've had I didn't try it till today and it doesn't leak. With the switch not on the line the engine idle seems a little high but I can live with that. It felt good to be able to drive it but that may not last long. My drivers license needs to be renewed before the first of August and the surgeon doesn't want to operate on my cataract because I only have vision in that eye. And we got a note that our insurance will be cancelled on August 2. And I layed awake thinking about power steering. GPster

The Jeepster is a re-bodied 1991 S10/1987 S15 using the best of each so it's all GM. I didn't like the power steering pump 0n the S15 because of the remote fill but the s10 had the fill on the pump so I went with it. Found out later that someone had changed the pump to one off a Chevrolet LLV ( a Chevrolet 'rolling chassis" that they build mail trucks out of). When I started with this "LEAK" I thought it was between the pump and the reservoir so I ordered a replacement pump (only to find out that my core had a different size pulley shaft). That's when I discovered that the actual leak was from the pump outlet and leaking from between the pump and the reservoir. As soon as I find this teflon 0 ring seal that much should be fixed. Going back to this switch the S15 had it and because I'm using the S15 computer I tried to duplicate it's wiring. The place that could make me the 6AN line that I needed between the pump and the switch (has changed hands and no longer has anybody that can do it). The piece I had made was only 4 1/8" long  and then I cut it for a regular flare (37 or 45) so now I don't have that piece for the original (working) idea. If a teflon crush washer will do the job for my pump outlet I'll be a little further along. GPster

Your reply reminded me that I could do some more checking. That switch goes to circuit "C" in the computer which has the Idle Air Control Motor. The switch has it's own ground wired to it so that indicates some importance. That circuit has no indicator light on it. Maybe I could put a "jumper" on it so it would be 'hot' all the time but I'd have to think if it would help me with my lack of anybody to make AN fittings. I've been running all this stuff thru my mind for weeks. So much so that I've asked here for help. GPster

Could a teflon  0 ring seal also be labled as a PTFE crush washer? And asking  different question. Because I'm lacking someone to form 6AN ends on a line, how important do you think the pressure switch that is on the discharge (pressure) line from the pump? Old time (me) thought was that it told the computer to speed up the engine but there also is a warning circuit to light a light to tell you to check fluid levels? Eliminating this switch would take a steel line and a coupling/tee out of this mess. Our yearly Lions Club Father's Day Car Show is next week and even though it's only 2 blocks away (I could walk) I'd like to take the Jeepster to feel like I belong. There also is a car show in town in two weeks in connection with Hemming's Great Race. Marietta is the only place in Ohio that is an overnight stop for the race so there is a full day planned of car events. GPster

Well my latest try didn't work. Tried an 9 ring that was bigger that I though might be teflon and every thing felt tight. Nothing leaked until I reved up the engine then everything leaked. I guess I'll have to go to the junkyard and try to find something with a GM stage 2 power steering pump on it that I can rob the seal out of. Of course the machine so that made my 6AN line changed hands and now they're not capable of that feat. I'm going to church. GPster

Thanks Frank, I know you told that before. Now all I have to do is figure out where to find one. Remember this is the town that seals "O" rings by opening a box and looking and see what's close. The internet hasn't helped yet but maybe I don't know how to ask the right question. GPster

I don't know what I'm missing. I removed the fitting from the pump outlet and I'm going directly from the pump to the 6AN line with the 16mm metric nut on it. The nut will not tighten the line. It's like the outlet is not tapped deep enough to let the line bottom against the "O" ring. It's like the pump outlet requires the type of nut like is on the pressure inlet of the steering box but that nut require you to use an 18mm wrench and there's no way you could get an 18mm wrench in the top of this pump. Is there another type of seal other than an "O" ring? Every diagram of the parts of this assembly just shows "O" rings at all the joints. This assembly is odd and I see no diagrams of this because the pump outlet is a solid line the goes to a tee that couples to the pressure hose going to the steering box and the third side of the tee has a pressure switch that controls the engine idle so that the engine won't stall when you're backing into a parking space. This line not seating and the leaks that it causes is probably what was going on with the old pump. Any ideas?

First the fitting that I used is designed to go from the 16mm "O" ring seal to 3/8" flare used on older GM power steering hoses so I'd have to say that the problem is with the flare I made. Second the new "O" ring between the tank and the pump didn't stop that leak and when we had it apart we could find no cracks in the tank and we couldn't see any place where the pump was leaking. Because the obvious fix didn't work I got to thinking. Shouldn't the return side of the pump be a lower pressure? Maybe there's something wrong with the pump. There is no leak when the pump isn't running even if the tank is full. If the tank is defective it won't help me because new pumps are not an assembly and I'll have to use that tank with a replacement pump. Time to do something else. GPster/

The local machine shop only has morning hours so they were closed at 2:20. So I went to the local NAPPA store to see if they had a machine shop. They didn't but the guy on the counter figured out how to get it apart. They don't sell the power steering pump as an assembly so even with a new pump I'd have to use the old tank ( cause I can't spell the other word) so we changed the "O" ring and I'll try it again. Everybody with an old S10 complains about how hard they steer. With the Jeepster being so light I'd try it with manual steering but I'd probably never find an idler pulley for an engine that's more than 30 years old. GPster

Just because I haven't been on this site in 5 days doesn't mean it's fixed, it doesn't mean I stopped working on it either. Because I could look at the fittings and see that they were leaking doesn't mean that that was the whole problem. You can only see the leak from the side (no inner fenders) and with the pump running. I have a massive leak between the fluid resevior (plastic) and the pump itself. I'm trying to get it apart to see why but it looks like you need a machine shop to do it. So I looked on the internet thinking that I probably need to replace it as an assembly. They only show the pump by itself so I would have to find a shop to take it apart and put it back together. Taking the pump out today it looks like the flare that I thought was the problem is 45 degree so I'm thinking that a flare seal (McMaster-Carr) will fix it. It's a shame when any inteligence (sp) that one has runs out at noon. GPster