Hi,
After burning up my PS pump, I started looking for a replacement and found that a new merc unit costs $400+!!!! What a ripoff. Following a previous thread on here: PowerSteering, I was able to replace it with a pump that costs $38 bucks at autozone. Here is a walk through and a question too.
Do I need to use the shuttle valve and spring off the merc pump or just the pressure fitting bolt? EDIT: yes. Here is a picture of the shuttle valve and spring. It falls out of the old pump when you unscrew the pressure fitting.
You need: Deep socket set, pulley puller, box wrenches, a replacement pump #6251 from autozone, and rubber mallet. Use the pulley puller to get the pulley off while still on the engine, makes it easy to get to the bolts. You may have to loosen/remove one of the mounts for the pump, it is tight in there. Once the pump is off (remember what bolt goes where), take it to a vise and use a 1" deep socket to remove the pressure fitting. The reservoir bolts don't have a big lip, and using a #18 metric deep socket with ratchet I couldn't get enough of a bite, so I used an impact wrench which made easy work of it. Use the rubber mallet to lightly tap the old reservoir off bit by bit. Once it is off, clean it out well. Use the supplied new orings on the new pump and lube them with p/s fluid. Now lightly tap the reservoir back on, tighten the bolts to 30ft/lbs, Swap the shuttle valve and spring as well as pressure fitting, and reattach the pump to the boat. Bleed it, and you are good to go.
Also, the reason my pump went bad is because my lo-pressure line kept popping off of the steering ram, and off the power steering cooler at high rpm. It was doing this as I found out in the pictures below that the p/s cooler wasn't properly drained one winter and the water froze which ruined the cooler, reducing the flow of fluid back to the pump. This ruined the pump, as well as made the steering work very poorly.
Pictures of the power steering cooler: See the slight bulging?
Haven't tested it on the water yet, I'll report back
Thanks, Ryan
1986 Wellcraft Nova 26', twin merc 350s, alpha ones.
After burning up my PS pump, I started looking for a replacement and found that a new merc unit costs $400+!!!! What a ripoff. Following a previous thread on here: PowerSteering, I was able to replace it with a pump that costs $38 bucks at autozone. Here is a walk through and a question too.
Do I need to use the shuttle valve and spring off the merc pump or just the pressure fitting bolt? EDIT: yes. Here is a picture of the shuttle valve and spring. It falls out of the old pump when you unscrew the pressure fitting.
You need: Deep socket set, pulley puller, box wrenches, a replacement pump #6251 from autozone, and rubber mallet. Use the pulley puller to get the pulley off while still on the engine, makes it easy to get to the bolts. You may have to loosen/remove one of the mounts for the pump, it is tight in there. Once the pump is off (remember what bolt goes where), take it to a vise and use a 1" deep socket to remove the pressure fitting. The reservoir bolts don't have a big lip, and using a #18 metric deep socket with ratchet I couldn't get enough of a bite, so I used an impact wrench which made easy work of it. Use the rubber mallet to lightly tap the old reservoir off bit by bit. Once it is off, clean it out well. Use the supplied new orings on the new pump and lube them with p/s fluid. Now lightly tap the reservoir back on, tighten the bolts to 30ft/lbs, Swap the shuttle valve and spring as well as pressure fitting, and reattach the pump to the boat. Bleed it, and you are good to go.
Also, the reason my pump went bad is because my lo-pressure line kept popping off of the steering ram, and off the power steering cooler at high rpm. It was doing this as I found out in the pictures below that the p/s cooler wasn't properly drained one winter and the water froze which ruined the cooler, reducing the flow of fluid back to the pump. This ruined the pump, as well as made the steering work very poorly.
Pictures of the power steering cooler: See the slight bulging?
Haven't tested it on the water yet, I'll report back
Thanks, Ryan
1986 Wellcraft Nova 26', twin merc 350s, alpha ones.
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