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power steering died

kubtastic

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Tacoma, WA
Offroading today on snowy trails, and used my hydraulic winch a few times. Then while just driving up a hill, I start getting a nasty noise of really fast clicking and whining. I recognized the whining as the power steering pump, and when I checked under the hood, all the noise was coming from the pump. I essentially have no power steering at all, and during hard turns the pump makes excessive grinding and whining. The fluid level is just fine, so I don't know what it could be. I do have a hydraulic winch in the power steering fluid loop, so that kind of complicates stuff.

Are these the sounds of a broken pump?
 
Is it common to over stress the pump while thrashing around in the snow? The hydraulic winching is really easy on the pump it seems (continuously on), while steering hard left and right a lot is turning the pump on and off a lot...

separately, what's the best way to hook up a steering fluid cooler and filter? That pump has whined it's whole life and it finally crapped out.
 
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