eyezlee

I have a buddy with a 98 Baja outlaw with the 300 horse MPI's. Last weekend he was returning from our raft up and noticed that his steering was very difficult. Lifted the hatch and there was power steering fluid all over the bilge. He had some fluid onboard and filled it back up only to see it pouring out from the housing where the pulley enters and the pulley now "wobbles". Sounds like he has smoked the bearings in the pump to me.

Both motors have PS pumps, but it looks like only one is plumbed. If he removes the one that is not plumbed and puts it on the other side he'll have a serpentine belt problem. Does anybody make a pulley to bolt onto that location or is there a shorter belt that will work without the pump there?

If he goes ahead and buys a new one, is there anything "seaworthy" about the pump or can he just run down to the local auto parts store and get one?

Thanks,
Paul

Airpacker

what you are seeing is the result of GM cheapening the pump shaft material. The snap due to side loading.I have changed dozens for this exact problem. remove the belt and you can pull the pulley and a piece of the shaft right out of the pump body. As for marine pump....nope,plain jane pump. He will need a special puller and press to swap the pulley to the new pump though.

birdog

Junk yard.......Any late model GM truck.....

eyezlee

Anybody have cross reference # from mercruiser to gm?

Bulldog

Bring the pump to NAPA-

There are 3 parts to the pump assembly- the main housing, the pulley, and the pump body. You need to remove all bolts, studs, and the check valve/High pressure fitting from the back of the pump. The pump body will now slide out of the housing.

There is a puller kit which locks onto the center hub of the pulley(I paid $10 for one from harbor freight) and most auto parts stores have them. The pulley must be pulled off using this tool- the pulley is easily deformed and a gear puller won't work.

The pump core is the same for about 10,000,000 GM vehicles and is nothing special. I paid about $59 for a NAPA rebuilt pump. A good parts store will probably pull the pulley for you if you don't want to buy the tool- I would though.

HPJunkie

Bulldog,
Any idea what year of pump or which model of vehicle they come off of? Greg

Bulldog

try a 1981-1988 chevy truck. I would bring the pump to NAPA. Dont buy a rebuilt pump from Autozone- I've had about 3 of them and the best life was 6 months in a truck. The NAPA I put in about 6 years ago is still fine..

Good luck!

Cignificant

Just to document this in the OSO archives, I bought a NAPA part# 20-7920 to replace the pump I had (1990 Cigarette). It was as close as we could find. There were two differences - the connection tube for the return line was too long (corrected with a hack saw), and the case was not drilled for the bottom stud that screws in the back of the pump (fixed with a drill). The inside of the pump was already tapped for the stud - only the case needed a hole drilled through it.

Ed

I have a couple brand-new Mercruiser pumps, with vee-groove pulley's, for $100.00 each, plus shipping. Thanks, Ed