power steering?

[Demm]

well i was driving along this morning and all of a sudden i hear that squeaky belt sound. (the sound when you have a worn out belt in your car and you turn it on.) as i find out later my power steering is messed up. when i turn the car on and have it in park it will be ok up to a certain turning point. but once i turn the wheel past that point it sounds like it's grinding into something. when i have the car in drive in one place, it's very hard to turn the wheel and that "grinding" sound is very loud. also when my dad took it for a couple turns to see how it felt, when he came back there was oil all over the engine on the left side if it (if your facing the car). the car is fine when your actually rolling forward or moving. it's just hard to turn when your parked.

now my dilema is that i'm leaving outta town next month with my car...well supposed to. i have no idea whats wrong with my car, and neither does my dad. we dont wanna go out and buy a pump for 280 something just to find out that this one isn't broken. any advice on how to fix this, what it might be or anything like that?

thanks in advance
-demm

 

[mpvpsu]

I would check the hoses first. Spray them down with a little break clean, and fill the pump back up. Also clean off the block the best you can. Drive around the block make a few turns at low speeds, stop and check the pump, hoses, and connection points. You should be able to see where it's leaking after the 2nd or 3rd turn. You may want to fill the unit with a stop leak, I recomend Lucus. But what ever you do don't use trans fluid despite what some people tell you.

 

[Demm]

thanks for the info

we just replaced the whole pump. we got a reman pump for 180 from mazda. then we had hell because the pulley didn't come with it, then once we got it we had to have a machine shop attach it. bleh it wasn't fun. but it's all cool now