PS not working

[erik325i]

What could cause the power steering not to work?

Here is the situation, I removed a 24v motor from a friends car and replaced it with another 24v motor. I reused the PS pump, rack, and lines, but now the power steering is not working.
Yes, the fluid reservoir is full.
Yes, I have jacked up the front end and cranked the wheel back and forth from lock to lock to lock many times.

What else could cause this lack of power assist?

[MattM]

does it make horrid wining noises? or nothing at all? double checked all lines hooked up correctly?


if so its probably a bad pump or a bad rack, and i can only think of a really unsafe way to test the pump.... ahahah hopefully someone has a way better to recommend to someone.;)

[lennon]

he said he reused all the steering parts and i assume it all worked before. the pump or rack probably didnt break in the swap process. +1 for checking if lines are hooked correctly. im curious about this...

[erik325i]

I already checked the lines and they are hooked up correctly and are not kinked anywhere.
The pump isn't making any unusual sounds.

Erik

[rThor432]

I've seen a few lately that have snapped vanes in the pump. This instantly locks the pump and sheers the shaft. No real noticeable noise when it breaks or after the fact. Everything still spins and appears fine, but fluid doesn't move (duh). Pull the belt off and see if you can pull the pulley and shaft out by hand... I've seen this primarily on M54 cars, but I've seen it on a few M/S5x motors as well.

That's an odd problem. As you know, there are no electrical components that could cause an issue.. Doesn't make much sense. Correct fluid (ATF..) used, right? Haven't seen many modern ZF remote PS reservoir/filters clogged, but guess that's possible too. Good luck.

[surebimmer]

Ya I was going to say i have seen a few M54 E46 with bad power steering pumps. You can normally pump the front pulley forward and that lets you know the shaft has sheered.

[325issguy]

You know, this same exact thing just happened on my m52, except after a week or so the thing started making horrendous sounds. I have no clue what the problem was, I just removed the whole system all together. I'll take a glance at the pump to see what happened.

[evil_twin]

Turn the car on, open the cap of the PS reservoir, and see if the fluid is moving around. If it's not, it's your pump.

[erik325i]

Thanks for the input guys. I've never seen a pump shaft sheer, but it makes sense. I'll take a look at it when I get a chance.

Erik