Lost of power steering at high revs?!

This is one has me stumped.

I drive a manual 1988 XJ 4.0 I6, and this has happened to me about 3 or 4 times. At high revs, whether I'm in neutral or driving (the first occurrence when going around a mountain switch) my Jeep loses ALL power steering. The first 2 or 3 times I lived with it, and it kicked back in randomly a day or two later. But the last time it happened, immediately after the high rev and lost of power steering, I just reved high again and power steering engaged, almost like a switch. I'd hate for this to happen while wheelin. Any suggestions???

Thanks in advance,

CJ Ratliff

What's the fluid look like?

How's it feel?

My 87 (more than the others) used to have a nasty "pump catch" when the belt became even a little bit slack. While this may have been partly due to the pump being old and worn, I found that keeping the belt properly tightened seemed to cure it.

It did this with no noise and no warning.

Matthew Currie said:

My 87 (more than the others) used to have a nasty "pump catch" when the belt became even a little bit slack. While this may have been partly due to the pump being old and worn, I found that keeping the belt properly tightened seemed to cure it.

It did this with no noise and no warning.

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Interesting. I have had excellent results by sucking all the old fluid out of the reservoir and replenishing it with new fluid. If the problem persists, do it again.

cruiser54 said:

Interesting. I have had excellent results by sucking all the old fluid out of the reservoir and replenishing it with new fluid. If the problem persists, do it again.

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That's also a good idea, and I've also had good results in quieting down an older pump. Especially useful if you don't know the history of the fluid in it. Power steering pumps seem to be one of those instances where the quality of the juice can make a big difference rather quickly. New fluid never helped my 87, though. A very tight belt did.