I DID MINE ABOUT A YEAR AGO WITH CLOSE TO 90K MILES

Yep, it is the AE I invested in. Only other time I used it tho so far was for the key programming, because it does have a pats section in it. I think that the psd owners get more use out of them because of more features for the psd on there. I guess it is a good thing tho, not much use=no real problems to have to pull it out to use it, and I don't have any other vehicles to use it on.

 

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to get my power steering fluid changed out because it looks and smells like it is the original fluid. I have an F350 and not an Excursion, but I imagine the procedure is the same since the engine is the same. I did a search around the site and this looks like the simplest procedure as it is just basicly a gravity drain. I had a few questions for anybody that has changed out their fluid this way on a V10.

Are the lines down by the radiator in the pictures above circulating the power steering fluid through a separate power steering fluid cooler?

About what percentage of the old fluid will come out with this gravity drain?

Is air in the system not a problem? I don't see where the original poster was advising to add fluid in the reservoir as the old fluid drains out.

 

I did this fluid exchange procedure today and it could not be more simple than on a V10. All I did was place a catch basin under the power steering hose connections at the bottom of the radiator, slide the clamps back onto the hard lines, pull the soft hoses off the hard lines, open the reservoir, then let both lines gravity drain. I measured how much old power streering fluid came out -- 1 3/4 quarts. I slid the soft hoses back onto the hard lines and slid the clamps back into place. I refilled the reservoir with about 1 1/4 quarts, started the truck and worked the steering wheel back and forth a few times. This drew fluid out of the reservoir and into the power steering system, opening up more capacity in the reservoir. I repeated this procedure again -- fill reservoir, start truck, work steering wheel -- then did a final top-off of the reservoir up to the midlde of the dipstick cold range. I took a test drive and all was well. Checked for leaks down at the hose connections. All dry.

The drained fluid was very brown and did not smell good. I imagine that it has been in there for 20 years. I refilled with Mercon V.

 

Nice job, thank you for sharing the results.
I had my steering gearbox replaced a year ago, but there's still a bit of noise and heavy resistance when at low RPM's. I might need to check into this proceedure...

 

Just an FYI: I skipped the step of freeing the two power steering lines from the plastic clamp that holds the lines in place next to each other (as shown by the OP). I still had enough play in the lines to get both clamps off and the soft hoses disconnected from the hard lines. Also, with the fairly small ID of the lines and only about two quarts in the system, the fluid does not come shooting out once the lines are separated. It just sort of falls out of the end of the lines. So the job is pretty clean with only a small bit of fluid getting on my latex gloves.