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WJ steering pump on XJ - whining.
- Thread starter blistovmhz
- Start date
blistovmhz
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
Oh, crap. How long does it typically take to bleed? I had a leak in my HP line a few days ago and it did get pretty low. Swapped lines, added fluid and bled out, but maybe just didn't get all the air out.
Well. I worked at a GM dealer for a while and we had a hell of a time bleeding the power steering on the traverse/acadia/enclave vehicles. Simply turning the wheel back and forth a thousand times with the engine off didn't work.
The best method I found to bleed the system was to use a Mighty-vac and set it up to pull a vacuum on the vehicle, with a catch bottle between the mighty-vac and the vehicle's reservoir. That way I didn't lose vacuum if fluid traveled up the line to the mighty-vac. I hope this makes sense.
The best method I found to bleed the system was to use a Mighty-vac and set it up to pull a vacuum on the vehicle, with a catch bottle between the mighty-vac and the vehicle's reservoir. That way I didn't lose vacuum if fluid traveled up the line to the mighty-vac. I hope this makes sense.
blistovmhz
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
Not yet. Haven't been doing much though as the weather is miserable.
Whines way more when the fluid is cold. Quiets up as it warms up. Pretty consistently now.
Feels like I'm just trying to push too much pressure through that return, but I dunno. Maybe the stock XJ HP hose isn't quite big enough either?
I'm sure it whines more in cold weather. That's kinda why I haven't drilled my fitting any bigger either. I'm happy with the assist it gives me for now. I think I'll wait until you find a solution lol.
Have you tried getting a universal barbed fitting and running that off the box? The guy I bought my pump from broke the lower fitting off the res so I got a 3/8" barbed fitting and jb welded that thing into place on my res and I have absolutely no noise from it now.
Have you tried getting a universal barbed fitting and running that off the box? The guy I bought my pump from broke the lower fitting off the res so I got a 3/8" barbed fitting and jb welded that thing into place on my res and I have absolutely no noise from it now.
blistovmhz
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
Isn't the stock LP port 1/2"? 3/8" should cause a greater restriction.
Re: Re: WJ steering pump on XJ - whining.
I think it is 1/2". BUT, I didn't want to buy a new reservoir, so I made it work with a 3/8 fitting. Seems to be perfect since its now the same size coming from the steering box. Maybe going from 3/8 to 1/2 causes a little cavitation?
donthelegend
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- St. Louis, MO
Back from wheeling this weekend.
Steering did really well. The high pressure line sputtering a leak Friday night but it was original so I think it was mostly just coincidence. Replaced it Saturday morning and had some minor whining at first but I assume just some minor air in the system from replacing the line.
Most of the rest of the day was whine free. It sits whine a little on a longer uphill rock garden. But that was about 20 minutes of hard back and forth and still only got very minor whining while at full lock or with the fronts bound up.
Power was notably better than without the fitting drilled out and the only time I couldn't get the fronts turned at all was when the left side of the jeep slid into a V notch and the entire left side of the jeep was leaning against the ground.
I'm very happy with the performance off-road and I don't think I'll drill the fitting out anymore than I already have. If I want more steering assist I'll be looking to go to hydro assist.
Steering did really well. The high pressure line sputtering a leak Friday night but it was original so I think it was mostly just coincidence. Replaced it Saturday morning and had some minor whining at first but I assume just some minor air in the system from replacing the line.
Most of the rest of the day was whine free. It sits whine a little on a longer uphill rock garden. But that was about 20 minutes of hard back and forth and still only got very minor whining while at full lock or with the fronts bound up.
Power was notably better than without the fitting drilled out and the only time I couldn't get the fronts turned at all was when the left side of the jeep slid into a V notch and the entire left side of the jeep was leaning against the ground.
I'm very happy with the performance off-road and I don't think I'll drill the fitting out anymore than I already have. If I want more steering assist I'll be looking to go to hydro assist.
blistovmhz
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
I think we really need to understand how the pump actually works 
. This guessing and testing is ridiculous.
I originally used the stock XJ fitting with no over-bore, in the WJ pump. This didn't whine, but it also didn't seem to provide any additional assist. So I bored out an XJ fitting to 7/32 and that gave me some more assist, but started whining. So I said screw it and bored it out to the same size as the WJ fitting, and this originally didn't whine and gave me a tonne of assist (one finger driving 35's), but after a day on the trail it started whining and lost the assist again.
So I tried putting a stock XJ fitting in again today, and voila! Whine doesn't get noticeable till much higher RPM, and the assist feels just about right.
However, while I was swapping fittings again, I noticed when I pulled the bored fitting out, that the piston didn't pop up. I had to fiddle with it to get it to pop out as it'd gotten itself slightly wedged. I suspect it was fine when I installed the bored fitting, but somehow got itself wedged fully down. I really don't understand the dynamics of the flow piston, but I figure that might explain why I had very little assist with the big bore fitting, but once I popped it out and re-installed the stock XJ fitting, everything feels good again.
So, who knows how the flow piston actually works? I haven't found a good description anywhere yet.
. This guessing and testing is ridiculous.I originally used the stock XJ fitting with no over-bore, in the WJ pump. This didn't whine, but it also didn't seem to provide any additional assist. So I bored out an XJ fitting to 7/32 and that gave me some more assist, but started whining. So I said screw it and bored it out to the same size as the WJ fitting, and this originally didn't whine and gave me a tonne of assist (one finger driving 35's), but after a day on the trail it started whining and lost the assist again.
So I tried putting a stock XJ fitting in again today, and voila! Whine doesn't get noticeable till much higher RPM, and the assist feels just about right.
However, while I was swapping fittings again, I noticed when I pulled the bored fitting out, that the piston didn't pop up. I had to fiddle with it to get it to pop out as it'd gotten itself slightly wedged. I suspect it was fine when I installed the bored fitting, but somehow got itself wedged fully down. I really don't understand the dynamics of the flow piston, but I figure that might explain why I had very little assist with the big bore fitting, but once I popped it out and re-installed the stock XJ fitting, everything feels good again.
So, who knows how the flow piston actually works? I haven't found a good description anywhere yet.
- Location
- Lakeside, CA
Here's a good read on pumps.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/973826-what-s-going-inside-ps-pump.html
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/973826-what-s-going-inside-ps-pump.html
tballer4596
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- NY
Hello everyone, I know this thread is super old, but I want to throw in my 2 cents because of an issue I'm having which seems slightly different from what you guys have said.
I have WJ pump and 99 durango box. Had awful whine until I realized that I needed to use the larger of the two return fittings. Still using the stock return hose though, and still have some whine, maybe thats the problem?
I have the fitting fully drilled out to WJ size. My issue is that the truck feels great driving down the road, even on the highway. However, when I come to a stop and RPMS are low, i get maybe 50% of the assist that I do under power. Has anyone experienced this? Its the only thing keeping this swap from being awesome for me. I am considering trying drilling out the relief ports on the side of the fitting as somebody in here mentioned, but I'm not sure exactly if that would help or not.
I have WJ pump and 99 durango box. Had awful whine until I realized that I needed to use the larger of the two return fittings. Still using the stock return hose though, and still have some whine, maybe thats the problem?
I have the fitting fully drilled out to WJ size. My issue is that the truck feels great driving down the road, even on the highway. However, when I come to a stop and RPMS are low, i get maybe 50% of the assist that I do under power. Has anyone experienced this? Its the only thing keeping this swap from being awesome for me. I am considering trying drilling out the relief ports on the side of the fitting as somebody in here mentioned, but I'm not sure exactly if that would help or not.
Black1990jeep
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- california
I run a Durango gear box, pulled from the wrecking yard, my pump is a stock xj rebuild from Autozone. 33 inch tires, many 100s of miles rock crawling, 1000's of miles of highway use. no problems. A whine is usually bad, and maybe a sign of air being pumped, which can ruin the pump and gearbox. It was for me...
one thing I did wrong at first was install a steering cooler, the problem with that is I placed it too high up on the radiator, such that part of the cooler was higher than the fluid reservoir fill level. This made getting all the air out of the system not possible, so dispite lots of air bleeding, till I got almost no air bubbles, she whined and had a short life. I had to replaced both pump and gear box as fluid was full of metal, flushed everything and moved cooler down to near bottom of radiator, well below the reservoir level.
The difference was huge, the air purged quickly, and she was silent.
So the Autozone cheapo rebuild pump is working fine for me. And always install the cooler and or inline filter, BELOW the reservoir level!
I also run an inline filter made for steering, when my pump died, the filter worked hard, I cut it open, the filter media was crushed with metal bits, and the magnet inside was also covered, this filter has a bypass valve, so it kept flowing after the filter itself clogged. Good design inline filter I run one on steering, another on transmission.
https://magnefinefilters.com/
good luck
one thing I did wrong at first was install a steering cooler, the problem with that is I placed it too high up on the radiator, such that part of the cooler was higher than the fluid reservoir fill level. This made getting all the air out of the system not possible, so dispite lots of air bleeding, till I got almost no air bubbles, she whined and had a short life. I had to replaced both pump and gear box as fluid was full of metal, flushed everything and moved cooler down to near bottom of radiator, well below the reservoir level.
The difference was huge, the air purged quickly, and she was silent.
So the Autozone cheapo rebuild pump is working fine for me. And always install the cooler and or inline filter, BELOW the reservoir level!
I also run an inline filter made for steering, when my pump died, the filter worked hard, I cut it open, the filter media was crushed with metal bits, and the magnet inside was also covered, this filter has a bypass valve, so it kept flowing after the filter itself clogged. Good design inline filter I run one on steering, another on transmission.
https://magnefinefilters.com/
good luck
