Power Steering Pump

[Steve P]

15 hours ago, jacwjames said:

The lines on the bottom of my tank were all the 37 degree flared hydraulic type.  These types of lines only required a decent amount of tightening and they will not leak. 

Large equipment use the same type of fitting and run pressures in excess of 3500 psi.  Once the fittings are tightened there is little chance of a leak.  They are used in the most harshest of environments (logging, mining, construction) and are proven. 

Don't be afraid of taking a fitting loose.  The real only concern would be contamination into the system, make sure to plug or cap any loose lines. 

Those are great insights, especially for a newbie like me.   Thanks VERY much!!

[ok-rver]

2004 MH, 46,000 miles and no records of the PS and Cooling Fan (side radiator) ATF and filters having been changed. Tall Nelson tank with 3 stacked filters. we are getting ready for a 5,000 mile trip in June and July. Changed the Allison a couple of weeks ago with 19 quarts of TranSynd and kept a sample of the oil. There is good info in some of the older posts on changing oil so will not do a step by step.  I did use 3/8" poly clear hose to siphon out the liquid. Slow but cleaner than removing one of the hoses in the bottom. 

Tracing hoses, the large pump suction on my tank is outside of the filter. The cooling fan large return hose is on the inside of the filters. I siphoned the fluid and added back in 2 gallons of new. Started up the engine and ran for about 4 minutes. the two gallons was enough that the pump did not suck air. There was a small return line that was plumped into the bottom of the tank outside of the filter, a lot of flow, enough to push up above the oil surface. Size wise it is probably the PS pump return. I siphoned empty and no residue or particles in the bottom of the tank. replaced filters with NAPA gold. The rubber washer on one end was small and would barely fit over the angle iron center column of the tank. I pulled the small washer and used the larger washer of the filter above to seal. Refilled with 12 quarts of ATF.  Compared this ATF to the Allison and both have the same dark red color. 

Over the years, I have seen people pull filters apart to see what is inside. I peeled one end cap off, used a chisel to cut through the almost rubbery compound used to lock in the filter material, and cut the media loose on the other end thru the other hole. The inside of the filter had very little fine particles in the media. in the 1/3 of the media I unrolled to review, there were less than 20 particles that could be seen by the naked eye. I would guess that the particles came from the original assembly of the system. I meant to check the particles with a magnet. I will over the next few days. My manual recommends changing filters on like a yearly basis. With what I have seen, I would not be concerned going "several" years between filter changes. If you went to the trouble of pulling apart and looking for debris every few years, it might give you an indication of coming issues. I am considering doing another change of fluid only when we get back from the trip to maybe have 70% of the ATF being relatively new.