Has anyone removed their power steering pump on a 2002 SS? Mines leaking and I think I'm going to tackle this project this weekend. Looks like it's tight down in there. lol

 

Well I finally got around to tackling the power steering pump today. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. Here's a little info on how I did the job in case anybody else is having a leaking pump issue.

1. Removed serpentine belt.

2. Unbolted the coolant reservoir and laid it to the front out of my way.

3. Unbolted and removed the strut cross brace and unbolted and pushed alternator back out of the way. ( I think it can be done without moving the alternator, but it gave me more room to work.

4. Unbolted the power steering pump. There is an upper and a lower bolt holding the pump in place. The bolts are behind the pulley so you have to rotate the pulley until the holes in it line up so you can put a deep socket through the holes and onto the heads of the bolts to remove them.

5. Popped out a small holder from the back of the reservoir that clips an electrical connection up out of the way from the halfshaft.

6. Removed the low pressure side hose. This got interesting! The hose clamp was one of the small spring tension type and I could not get any tool under there to squeeze it loose. To remove the clamp I had to jack the car up and remove the passenger side wheel. Once removed you can see the hose fairly clearly. I can't stand those clamps so I used my side cutters and cut the clamp off the hose and replaced it with a standard screw tension hose clamp.

7. I then unplugged the negative side battery terminal and unplugged the enormous electrical connector on the passenger side fender well to make room for the pump to lift up and out through the top.

8. I fought with the pump for a minute or two to get it up and out.

9. The high pressure side hose is very long and allows you to remove the pump with it attached. Once the pump was pulled up and out you can loosen the high pressure hose fitting and then the pump can be put aside so you can remove the pulley.

10. I rented the pulley remover/installer from Autozone and it beautifully. Amazing how easy something can be when you've got the right tool.

11. Installed the pulley onto the new pump with rented remover/installer tool.

12. Replaced high pressure side o-ring and screwed high pressure side hose onto the new pump and wrestled it back down into position.

13. While the pump was still maneuverable I got back under the passenger fender and installed the low pressure hose and new hose clamp.

14. I then filled the pump with fluid before it pushed it back into it's little dark hole. (I can't believe how difficult they made it to access the reservoir for filling it up)

15. Making sure the electrical connector (I believe is for oil pressure switch or sender) was not pinched behind the pump I bolted it back into place.

16. Bolted alternator back into place.

17. Plugged large fender well electrical plug back together and installer battery cable.

18. Installed serpentine belt and coolant reservoir and it was ready to start back up and test out.

19. Poured a little more fluid into the pump after I let it run for a few minutes and everything worked great.

Total cost was $62.95 for re manufactured. pump w/reservoir and $4.00 for fluid.

 

great detail, thanks, hope it gets into the "how to section" on here!

 

Thank you for the write up. This will help a lot when my dad tackles the power steering pump on my mom's Bonneville with the 3800!

 

Please tell me you didnt put an Autozone PS Pump on it.

 

Just wondering, whats wrong with the Autozone PS pumps? Arn't they lifetime warranty?

What do you recommend?

 

have fun i hope you dont have as much trouble with that as i did my ac compresser it was hard to get at under the car and just a pain to work with

 

I dont know whwy but I put an Autozone PS pump on my old Grand prix once. Lifetime warranty and every year I was putting another pump on it. Gave up and and bought an AC Delco pump and never put another one on it. I like to do a job once not every year.

 

Hmmm, good to know! I'll keep that in mind. Thanks. Freakin GM power steering pumps! They don't seem to be the greatest!

 

Yes it's an autozone re manufactured pump and reservoir. I've never had any problems with their remans on any of my vehicles. It's still an ac delco part. They are just pumps that have new seal kits and bearings in them. I could have just bought the kit and rebuilt my old pump, but that seamed like too much work to save so little money. LOL