Got the engine running the other day. Put some power steering fluid in today and yikes! Just touch the steering wheel and it flew to the right.... I couldnt budge the darn thing if i tried. Turned the car off straightened the wheels and started if back up and it started jerking, pretty violently, left and right. So my question is, whats going on? I replaced one of the smaller power steering hoses. But this is the first time running the car and I am not sure if something could be blocked some where or where to look first? The pump also got very hot, to the point that the power steering fluid was boiling over the fill tube. Any suggestion on the problem or how to track down the problem would be greatly appreciated.

 

Something similar happened to my 67 when I replaced the smaller hoses going from the cylinder to the control valve. Check to make sure those are in the right spots. It is very easy to cross those up. And while your at it, drain all fluid out and replace it with fresh fluid. There may be some trash causing it as well.

 

+1 on checking the hose routing ( possibly reversed) same thing happened to me damn near ripped my arm off.

 

I hear ya about the almost ripping your arm off, i'm glad i didnt have a tighter grip.

The thing is i only took off one of the 2 hoses.... the other looked good and the one i replaced had been spliced with a steel line and hose clamps. It sounds like its something with the control valve? I'll try draining the fluid and see if it still looks clean or not. Maybe the control valve can be cleaned?

 

If you think it may be the control valve, get a rebuild kit. Not too expensive and easy to do. I rebuilt mine and have not had any problems since. Just keep track of where those hoses go.

 

I've been fighting my 70 mach I with P.S. problems, I am finishing a 3 year restoration and purchased a new P.S. control valve 3 years ago, it sit for a 2 1/2 years before I installed it. I had some problems where the p.s. would work one way but not the other, I thought maybe I had the lines wrong and swapped the two smaller ones, that's when the steering wheel took off. I talked the parts store into exchanging the control valve and installed the newest one tonight. That took care of my problem.

 

Regarding the control valve rebuild, any hints on the proper way to install the valve spool. I've got two different sets of instructions about which way the "narrow" groove goes. I assum the narrow groove is the one with the small groove within it.

 

In between two of the outer lands of the spool, you will see a narrow groove cut in one. That end of the spool goes to the outside, toward the aluminum end cap.

 

That's just what I needed to know. Thanks!