OMAHA

i want to replace these due to a recurring ps leak.....is this a easy job for my mechanic?

Largefarva

Yes. But if your alternator is still working you can just clean it out and hope for e best...the alt is probably $200+ so if you don't need it! don't change it.

kevvo

Had the pump on my '99 '400 repaired about a month ago. So far so good, no more topping up the reservoir every time the car was to be driven. While the car was on the hoist at the workshop I had a look underneath and the alternator looked pretty messy from p/s fluid all over it. Touch wood the alternator keeps working.

Largefarva

^Same with mine.....I used a can or two of brakeclean and got most of the oil out of it, brake clean, then compressed air, then repeat.

OMAHA

i bought the car in january and i have put 7000+ miles on it.....i plugged the ps pump and that stopped the white smoke and slowed the leaking GREATLY! however, in the past few weeks it is leaking more and more....

Largefarva

You need to find the leak before putting a pump on, it could be a blockage somewhere, a seal, or line.

OMAHA

ok, sounds like a plan! i will keep y'all posted....i guess it could be a hose or o-ring replacement also....

Caniac14

You'll want to take the alternator off and have a rebuild shop look at it.

I replaced just my pump because my alt was working fine so I was like ok cool.
It ended up dieing 3 weeks later even though I cleaned it pretty good. I had it rebuilt for $75, no problems out of it since.

OMAHA

ok, today he looked at it and the plug was leaking at the threads, so he put some thread seal tape on it and it's fixed!

Michael

It sounds like only thing you need is to replace is ACV (Air Control Valve).

I have 93 and had problem leaking PS fluid, a slow leak. Among other problems I had with PS system, leak was bothering me the most. I have observed PS pump for long time but just could not figure out where it could be leaking from. I was also worried that the alternator may fry due to the PS fluid leak getting into alternator.

I have decided to rebuilt the PS pump and alternator. I took the PS pump out and replace all o-rings, bearing and seal. I also took the alternator out to see how much of fluid has gotten into there.

Now no leak but in the process, I've learn that only thing I had to do was to replace the ACV or just plug up the hole like many others did in this forum.

ACV is design to fail. It can fail in two ways. Because of a o-ring inside the ACV being brittle, due to age, internal leak into the intake which can cause a white smoke at start. Then because of the plastic design of ACV, external leak also happen where it is glued between plastic part and metal part, this also happen due to age. The external leak was causing the leak for me and when engine is running, the fluid get blown to all over the area where PS pump is.

That external leak did not get to alternator too bad. I took the alternator apart and found not much fluid leaked in. I just replaced the brushes, cleaned little bit and put the alternator back on.

There is a chance that one of o-ring in the PS pump could be causing the fluid leak, but most likely the leak is coming from the ACV. Replacing the ACV or plugging up the ACV hole would most likely will fix your leak problem.