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The front seal on my power steering pump failed recently, so I purchased all the relevant seals and bearing and rebuilt it. A real fun chore getting the old bearings out... Anyways, I first noticed that this pump had 2 stacked inner bearings on the front portion of the drive shaft, so I reinstalled two bearings instead of just one as shown on the parts diagram. I would swear that the front outer drive shaft seal was installed backwards (cup facing out), but I went ahead and installed the new one the same way. Got it reassembled and reinstalled and had one heck of time trying to get all of the air out of the system. Never was able to get it all out, but I had steering.
After mowing for about 45 minutes, the new front seal failed and I lost a lot of fluid pretty fast. Pulled the pump off again, disassembled and rechecked everything, the reinstalled a new front seal; this time the other way around with the metal cup facing inwards. Pulled hoses, pipe, and reservoir and cleaned and flushed them, to confirm there were no blockages. Thinking the high pressure return might have been blocked.
Reassembled everything, still had a heck of time getting air out of the system but was able to steer. Then after about an hour and a half of mowing the front seal started leaking again.
Anyone have any knowledge/experience to share? I must be missing something, but can't figure out how/why the front seal keeps failing.
I should also mention that both front seals that leaked seemed completely fine to me. No torn or damage on the rubber seal. The current seal that is leaking seems as if the inner rubber lip just rolled outward.
I was careful to not block the lubrication port when installing the front seal, as it seems like you would not want to do that. Maybe too much pressure is building up in the space between the front seal and that "second" inner bearing? The parts diagram only shows one front inner bearing on the main shaft.
Many thanks, Nik
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