Buggy Power Steering issue

[Cookie]

This last weekend in the dunes, my Power Steering started to fade. At low idle, I pretty much had no power steering, once I gave the engine some throttle, no issues. So driving wasn't really an issue.

So my questions, would this be the Pump, Rack or just bad fluid. I have never changed the fluid (10 years), rack is a Funco Gen 4 rack, and the pump is Howe.

Just looking for direction to start..............

 

[John@Outfront]

clearly you need to check fluid level first, hopefully its not black! you should check that first. if black, flush and change fluid out most likely the pump but there are some external tricks you can try too--pics help regardless

 

[KyleDodd]

my problem I chased for a while was I had a block of foam in the reservoir, and it would heavily restrict the flow out of the resi, and to the pump causing no ps. Didn’t have the foam disintegrating or anything , just restricted the flow. Pulled it out and problem was solved

 

[Cookie]

clearly you need to check fluid level first, hopefully its not black! you should check that first. if black, flush and change fluid out most likely the pump but there are some external tricks you can try too--pics help regardless

Level is good, but it is black. When I first noticed it, we were in some super soft untracked smaller dunes and I was making lots of turns and not at speed. My first thought was over-heating the system?

I will change the fluid, can't hurt. Thanks

 

[Rockwood]

I don't think you can get it hot enough in a buggy. Not a lot of load, and the lines are super long for a lot of volume/heat dissipation.

Check the screen in the reservoir for shit. Change the fluid (burp it by moving the wheel back forth a gazillion times while keeping the reservoir topped up). If it persists, I'd assume your pump isn't happy.