Power steering pump pulley puller; just try to say that five times fast. Now that you have tried and possibly done it, you now have a clue on what broke and was replaced by Charles.
The power steering pump hasn't worked well for about the last year. It was a real pain because it couldn't turn well and if trying to make a tight turn it would loose power steering. Trying to park it while loosing power steering sure makes you appreciate power steering in such a huge, heavy truck.
The belt on the pulleys is kind of complicated to put on if you don't know how. We learned that last year when it ripped to shreds and we had to put a new belt on. This time Annette took a photo of it and then later drew a diagram to throw in the glove compartment.
Charles used a pulley puller he bought from O'Reilly's to take off the pulley. He then replaced the power steering pump. He put the pulley back on and then the belt. Super simple, huh? Yeah, until we turned the engine on and the belt started to slide off. The pulley wasn't on all of the way, and hence the belt wasn't aligned. Charles tried his hardest to put the pulley on farther. Annette got beneath the truck and held the pulley in place so it wouldn't spin while Charles tightened. He eventually stuck a tool in there to jam it in place while he cranked on it.
Eventually the pulley putter-on broke. We looked at the pulley and thought, maybe it is on tight enough? We turned the engine on and the belt still slid off.
So, Charles got to take off the belt, pulley, and pump again.
He was thankfully able to get the broken bolt out of the pump with Annette's tweezers. The pulley had groves in the metal which either came while putting it on or were already there and hence making it hard to put on.
Charles got a new pulley, attached it to the pump beforehand, adding some lubricant this time to help.
And then we bolted the pump and pulley to the truck. That yogurt bucket is the power steering fluid that was new that he had put in, but then had to drain. He tried to save what he could.
Here is the new power steering pump and pulley. All pretty and new.
Despite having to pretty much do the entire project twice and damaging his hands a bit, Charles found the power steering fluid lid to be one of the biggest pain in the rears to get on.
Lizzy dreams of being a grease monkey like her Daddy.
Warning: After opening your hood, make sure you close it all of the way or else you'll see it fluttering in the wind when going down the freeway and you'll have to pull off fast to fix it. Oops.
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