Replacing power steering hoses on a pusher school bus involves bypassing the original steel power steering lines. This school bus is almost 12 years old, the pipes deteriorate over time from rust and vibration. They are clamped to the underside and usually start to leak in that area.
To make the job quicker we replace the pressure and return lines with high pressure double wire braided hoses. The ends are pipe thread and can be easily adapted to fit properly. The factory piping needs to be flushed out after and plugged since it will drip oil for days after and appear to look like the power steering is still leaking.
The hoist makes this job much easier running the new lines and securing them to the body. Once the lines are installed, the filters in the reservoir should be changed and 10w30 engine oil added. We found on occasion that 15w40 is too heavy an oil and creates a backup in the reservoir causing seepage.
The hoses are approximately 40 feet long and can be made up at a hose shop. They have all the tools that a mechanic shop could not justify to have since this is not a regular failure. This mechanic fix isn't hard to diagnose since oil leaks are pretty obvious to the naked eye.
John,
ReplyDeleteSome friends of mine own a 1985 GMC School Bus and, you guessed it, steering it is like working the rudder of a ship about to go over Niagara Falls! We only use the bus once a year to transport camping materials to the Burning Man arts festival, however, that amount of driving is very stressful because it is so difficult to steer. We store the bus in Northern Nevada and I am wondering if would you please tell me how much repairing the power steering might cost and what type of repair place in Northern Nevada might be able to do the work you have suggested here?
Thank you.
Tim