all very interesting stuff, thanks folks.

I did not know that there was such a fluid as synthetic power steering fluid. I also would be interested in opinions on using that vs syn ATF.

I am headed towards a total rebuild of the Power Steering system. For one, it is leaking somewhere.

Any thoughts on the likely points this could occur? I'm hoping it is just at a hose connection but wondering what other possibilities might exist. I have been topping it off with regular PS fluid every couple weeks to keep the volume of the whine down and have just recently come to the end of a very busy seasonal job and have time to work on this.

Someone has already monkeyed with the system...the small PS radiator is hung up on the transmission radiator at a 45 degree angle, using zip-ties. Must have been a 6 beer job for whoever did that one. There was not any red ATF fluid in the system when I first checked, so who knows what fluid has been run through there.

So I want to at a minimum flush the system, find the leak, maybe just replace the hose if it has already been on and off a few times, and re-hang the radiator correctly.

Any thoughts on how much and what size hose I would need to order? I'm willing to do this myself but I hope to assemble the materials in advance to minimiz e the total down-time. (I live in a pretty small town). What kind of hardware is involved in hanging the PS radiator correctly?

And two more questions to go - Can the pump assembly itself leak, like through some sort of internal seal failure?

And when I let the dealership do a basic inspection when I bought this truck ('00 with 185K at purchase, 205K now), they told me that the reason there is some play in the steering wheel is a "tube" in the steering column needed to be replaced. Not sure what that might be, but I knew I could live without that in the short run. In the long run I would like to tighten up the steering in general as it is all too easy to drift the curve, especially if you don't have two hands on the wheel. So would that repair have any synchronicity with working on the PS fluid system? I would think not but I don't know where that "tube" might connect to.