DIY: How To do a FULL rebuild on power steering pump

eksine

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I have 2 vehicles: a 2002 Odyssey and a 2001 Accord V6, fixing both are surprisingly almost identical, in fact the power steering pump fits on both. I tried to remove the ball bearing on the Odyssey and failed, I even put the shaft aginst the bottom of the van and used a hydraulic jack and couldn't separate the shaft and housing. On the 2001 accord V6 I was able to separate it with a rubber hammer, just by hand.

*figured how to separate it: if the shaft is hard to get out of the housing you can use the clamp by putting one side on the shaft (the shaft side which you see after you take off the back cover, so this is the hidden internal end of the shaft) and the other side of the clamp on the circular lip/ edge of the housing , you will destroy the clamp doing this so buy a spare clamp $8 at harbor freight. the lip is the hole where the ball bearing sits inside of. the lip sits above the ball bearing like a ledge


The hardest part is separating the bearing, only 1 youtube vid I found should him doing it but he didn't explain how. Replacing the ball bearing is the most critical part of the rebuild, once you do that you basically have a brand new pump. I won't tell you how to replace the seals, because that's obvious, except make sure the metal fins that the rounded part of the fins stick outwards, they push against the walls and that creates friction, so naturally you want the rounded part out.Anyways here's how to do replace the hard stuff with a turn clamp and some sockets:

step1: while pump is still mounted to car, use a 19mm socket to break loose the pulley nut, it is a normal leftie loosie. take pump off car, remove pulley and use a lag bolt and mount it to a 2x4 so you can break loose the back plate bolts (4).
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step2: remove large circlip, I use a tiny needle nose plier from harbor freight (pittsburgh brand), I use a plumber's pipe wrench to bent the tips when I reinstalled the circlip. this circlip requires a lot of force fortunately it doesn't matter if you scratch the top because it is a non-critical part. since you already broke the 4 back bolts off, remove the back plate and aim the plate towards the ground. you can jiggle the contents out and keep ALL the internals intact including fins, remember this for re-installation.

step3: I was able to use a rubber hammer to pound the shaft out , you simply hammer it on the shaft end where the back plate was and rest the top part where the circlip was on a 2x4, don't use a metal hammer, you could flatten the shaft and it may not fit back onto the back plate. I was not able to do it like this on my Odyssey, it was pressed on too tight, but read the rest of these steps and there should be a similiar way of removing the shaft using a clamp etc. the shaft can only come out one way outwards to the direction the circlip was at, look inside the housing and you can see the bearing would never be able to go through the housing, that's why. boom, the shaft is out

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step4:
after you take the shaft out there is a large metal washer, below is an oil seal just like a crank seal but smaller. harbor freight has a set of prybars that look like screwdrivers but the tips are angled, use the medium size one to leverage it out. the outside wall of that rubber seal is actually metal and it terminates at a 90 angle, you will not scratch the housing wall trying to pry it out so do not worry. you could use a metal 90 degree pick, whatever to remove it. when replacing it I first tried lubricating the seal and walls, it's too easy so I wiped it off and tried again

step 5:
use a 30mm socket and a 14 mm socket stacked to remove the ball bearing, I use a 2 foot metal pipe on the handle of the clamp, the friction is extreme! this is why almost nobody replaces the bearing

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and here's the prize, the shaft without bearing (notice that there is a lip aka edge, that's where the ball bearing was resting, which means the bearing can only come out pulley sprocket side out and you do not need to guess how far back when reinstalling):

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step6: firstly use a 16mm socket to tap the bearing in at first so when you use the clamp you will not cause the bearing to get twisted as it goes in, just like how you hand thread an oil pan bolt first. use the clamp and 16mm socket to press the new ball bearing in with the clamp, a 15mm fits perfect but I used 16mm because in case it's too tight and the shaft teeth are damaged because it clamps down crooked. you are pressing on the INSIDE metal wall, not the outside wall, not sure if you would damage the bearing if you used the outside wall to force it in but be safe and don't. the ball bearing has 2 sides, the metal dust cover faces towards back plate, red plastic cover faces towards pulley:

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step 7: replace the rest of the rubber seals, it's self explanatory. look at the diagram for the car and double check the part numbers, trust me it's the easiest part of the rebuild, lube every seal with PS fluid and the metal parts that rub against each other. I never even had to reinstall the fins because of what I explained earlier. put the back cover on and the bolts, you don't need the 2x4 yet because you need to press the shaft/ bearing assembly far enough to reinstall the circlip, if you could press it down with just a rubber hammer, congrats you're strong, if not use the clamp again and a 30mm socket, it fit perfect, be very CAREFUL, if you do it too tight, you're not getting the shaft off again, if I ever have the chance Ill show you how to take the shaft off with a clamp if a hammer is not enough, I know there's a way becaue I'm going to redo my odyssey pump just like this.

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Connie

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Wow, great work! I've never had a ps pump go bad on any of my Hondas, but I'm sure that day will eventually come. Was there a kit you got for this or did you just measure the bearings and the seals and order the pieces that you needed one by one?

I have a few spare pumps that are ready to be installed, but rebuilding it is nice to have as an option.
 

eksine

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I actually go to the majestic honda site or hondapartsnow and look at the diagram and order every seal and bearing I need. I think rebuilding it is better than a rebuilt one on ebay or amazon or vatozone because they use cheaper aftermarket seals and those tend to leak. plus I trust my own work and you know it's gonna be a good bearing vs whatever cheap bearing they put in there. I did a rebuild on both my cars because they're over 100k (actually over 200k on my accord) it's like $40 in parts, it's one less thing to worry about.
 

Connie

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The one on Midnight hasn't started leaking yet, but it's only at 201k km. I'm sure it'll start soon.

Connie's has been leaking since about 160k km, and now at 473k km it's pretty much spraying the whole passenger side of the engine bay with ps fluid. It looks worse than it is, I don't really have to top it up very often, maybe every 5-10k km 100mL or so needs to be added.

But what a mess it's made over the years in there, lol. My oil filter comes off black with ps fluid every time now, and there's a perfect stripe on the bottom of the hood from it constantly spraying misted ps fluid everywhere lol. The rubber hose has been sweating for a few years too.

I was going to grab one of my spare parts car pumps and just swap it, but both of my spares have a lot of miles on them, too. For an extra 40 bucks, it makes a lot of sense to just rebuild it. It seems like this is a very common failure, and doing things twice is no fun.

I bet I can order everything from the dealership for a similar price. They're usually pretty reasonable with bearings and seals and the like, and they always have it within 24 hours.

I'll check out the hondapartsnow website, but usually being in Canada makes the online stores not really worth it after shipping and import duty.
 
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