I am replacing the high pressure power steering line on my 2000 Lightning and have a question about the fitting that goes into the steering gear. The new hose came with a black rubber o-ring that the instructions seem to indicate goes on the end of the steering gear fitting. The problem is that I did not see any o-ring on the original hose end or in the steering gear itself and the hose did not leak there (it was leaking on the pump fitting). Should there be an o-ring at the end of the fitting or does the fitting go on without it and uses a metal to metal seal? Has anyone replaced this hose and if so, did you use the o-ring or leave it out? Any help would be appreciated!

Does it go on like this?







Or like this?

 

You need the o-ring. Look inside the fitting on the steering gear, it might be down inside there or it might've fallen off when you pulled the hose out.

 

Thank you for the response. I did look inside the steering gear fitting and there is no o-ring in it. I did think that perhaps it may have fallen off when I pulled out the tube but I couldn't find it if it did. Of course there are a lot of places it could hide. I assume you have done this repair in the past and used the o-ring? I had to remove the lower radiator hose to access the fittings and I want to be sure I reassemble the hose correctly to avoid draining the cooling system and removing the lower radiator hose again.

 

the older flare fitting is installed metal to metal. The fitting you show , comes with an o-ring for a reason. That is the seal and the nut is torqued into the hole.

 

Well I used the o-ring but I won't be able to test for leaks until next week. I'll let you know if it leaks. Thanks for the help.