07-28-2014, 11:10 AM
We drove the cars over 1300 miles this past week from PA to NC and back. On the drive back home in the 69 Mach 1, I developed a leak in the (brand new) power steering return hose and lost power steering. We had to stop for the night anyway due to a fiery tractor-trailer crash in the northbound tunnels on I77 just to the north of Wytheville, VA.
The fluid return hose on a 69 has about 7" of steel tubing on one end and a crimp-fit to a rubber hose where the tubing ends. The rubber hose goes to the pump and attaches with a hose clamp. I took the hose off, cut off the crimped part and the part of the hose that was leaking and then inserted the tube into the hose and secured it with a hose clamp. Needless to say I lost nearly all of the power steering fluid that was left in the system. I bought Type F transmission fluid and refilled the system in the motel parking lot. That fixed the leak and everything was working fine.
About 40 miles into our trip that day, I smelled power steering fluid, saw smoke and seemed to lose power steering again. I pulled over and discovered that fluid had blown out of the filler tube and hit the headers, causing the smoke. I added fluid, and all was fine for another 30-40 miles when the same thing happened. This continued for 2 more occurrences (4 total) when I noticed that the fluid was burned and appearing blackened.
I needed to get home, and the last couple of times I pulled over to check the PS fluid the level was OK, but the power steering was intermittent (and the fluid obviously still burnt).
Does anyone have any ideas what could be happening to cause this? The pump, slave cylinder and control valve are all new.
Thanks,
Hutch
The fluid return hose on a 69 has about 7" of steel tubing on one end and a crimp-fit to a rubber hose where the tubing ends. The rubber hose goes to the pump and attaches with a hose clamp. I took the hose off, cut off the crimped part and the part of the hose that was leaking and then inserted the tube into the hose and secured it with a hose clamp. Needless to say I lost nearly all of the power steering fluid that was left in the system. I bought Type F transmission fluid and refilled the system in the motel parking lot. That fixed the leak and everything was working fine.
About 40 miles into our trip that day, I smelled power steering fluid, saw smoke and seemed to lose power steering again. I pulled over and discovered that fluid had blown out of the filler tube and hit the headers, causing the smoke. I added fluid, and all was fine for another 30-40 miles when the same thing happened. This continued for 2 more occurrences (4 total) when I noticed that the fluid was burned and appearing blackened.
I needed to get home, and the last couple of times I pulled over to check the PS fluid the level was OK, but the power steering was intermittent (and the fluid obviously still burnt).
Does anyone have any ideas what could be happening to cause this? The pump, slave cylinder and control valve are all new.
Thanks,
Hutch
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