I've got my good, old 1988 F250, extended cab, 7.3.
Anyway, as you might expect on something that old, the power steering is a bit worn. it's sloppy, not perfectly smooth, sometimes squeals a bit etc.
Well, I'd been looking around and saw that Lucas makes a stop-leak additive, which seems to be a very heavy weight oil with some other stuff in it. It's also expensive.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw that I was very low, and didn't have any power steering fluid handy. I've seen that ATF isn't a good idea due to the detergents, so I decided not to use that.
I found a bottle of synthetic 70-90W gear oil and decided to try that. I figure that being gear oil, it's probably not got a whole lot of degergents - you don't have a filter on a differential or anything - and while it's thicker, it's not /that/ thick.

I added about half a quart.
So far, it's run amazingly well; far smoother than it's ever been, and doesn't squeal at all now; I'm thinking the extra viscosity helped smooth out the worn...everything and make it work a little better.

Long term, I don't know. We'll see. I'm not too worried about ruining it, because the thing's near shot as it is, and I have a JY spare available.
I expect to come back to this topic in a year or so and let you all know what happened.
Anyway, For Science!

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What other power steering-related experiments have you guys done?

 

Had to use fuel line hose instead of my high pressure PS hose when it popped one day. Used that until the new pressure hose came in to the parts store. It would blow off if I turned to full lock but worked other than that, haha

 

You can use rubber hydraulic hose 5/16" or 3/8" not much more expensive than gas hose & it won't blow.

 

Well the issue wasn't the hose bursting, but it coming off where I had hose clamps on it. It was just few a couple days until I got a correct replacement pressure hose.

 

Well, 5 months later, and it's still working fine.
The initial bunch of thick oil stopped all the squealing, and it runs pretty smooth these days.
Also, the slow leaks from every possible place on the pump has slowed, so that's another positive - I haven't had to add fluid in several months, anyway.

Call it Problem Solved(or at least duct-taped).

 

I thought Type F transmission fluid was factory filled? Maybe not on the earlier systems? Mine is supposed to have it.


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Well, I'm getting tired of the whiny, weak, leaky, cheap, junk, stock "C2" power steering pump on my truck. I JUST put a seal kit in it right around 6 months ago and now it's leaking AGAIN! I tore it all down, replaced every seal in that thing, and now it's dripping from either the O-ring on the reservoir or the seal where the discharge port comes thru the reservoir... I can't tell and I don't care either. Not like me to say I don't care about my equipment, but there's a good reason for that... I plan on removing that POS for good here in a bit. I see that Saginaw pumps are a popular swap, but I have a York compressor bolted on a homemade bracket right above the p/s pump. I did find a writeup where a guy was able to run a York compressor AND a Sag pump, and I might do that, but first... I want to try something.

I want to mount a Ford "C3" p/s pump like is found on the 4.6/5.4 engines, that way I can have a remote reservoir, better flow/pressure, and not hear the damn thing squalling. It'll likely involve fabricating new brackets, but that's part of the fun... cut, weld, enjoy!

That's my experiment. I'll take pics when I do it, and post a how-to.

 

I was having power steering problems with my truck a few years ago. It was leaking fluid from the steering box, lines, and the bottom seal was blown out of the box. I replaced it with a manual box and love it. No more power steering problems! I can even use my old ps pump to run my dump bed!!!

 

I thought my box was shot, I had a good 45 degrees of play in the wheel. Turns out the box wasn't too bad at all. The bushing in the telescoping steering shaft was missing. I made a couple shims and tacked them on. That took out 90% of the slop.