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 In
January of 2005, on returning from a winter trip, I believed the grass beside
the garage was dry enough to support the motorhome. I pulled in and the
front tires sunk in the mud. In trying to pull out I turned the wheel with
only moderately pressure. Without an warning, I lost power steering and
brakes. As I wasn't going anywhere anyway, it wasn't a problem. I
would sure hate to be moving and have this happen! I was able to get the
motorhome out of the grass and parked but only with major efforts devoted to
steering and stopping.
Cracking the high pressure line on the pump
revealed it was not operating. With a good friend coming to the rescue, we
were able to change the pump. Here are some things we learned.
 First,
get a service manual and spend a good deal of time reviewing the sections
covering the pump, how to remove it, bleed it, install it, etc. Review how
to remove the belt using the idler. Review the way the belt is routed.
Changing over the pulley requires that you have the removal tool. My new
pump came with a tool to put the pulley back on.
 There
are a number of bolts that appear to be unreachable. I mean THEY ARE
BURIED. Get a good night's sleep and have a good meal. Be alert and
happy. You have a long process ahead of you. Once unbolted, we were
able to get the pump out of the engine compartment through a
long process of gyrations and what appeared to be magic. What we did not
know at the time, was that the pump shaft was broken. This allowed the
pulley to pull out from the pump allowing access to the front mounting bolts.
It also allowed us to remove the pump. We took it out, changed the cover,
changed the pulley, and tried to get it back in. It took an hour to get it
set in. Again, we had not yet realized that the broke shaft was our
problem. We then learned that THE PULLEY MUST BE PUT ON AFTER THE PUMP IS
INSTALLED ON THE ENGINE. Rather than take it out, we backed the pulley
back off the shaft, got the bolts in place, and then put the pulley back on.
It only required a little less than one quart of power steering fluid to fill
the pump and reservoir.
 Main
lesson that isn't obvious from the manual: IF you can get the pump out
(and this will only happen if your shaft is sheared off) you can get the pump
out with the pulley in place. If not, you will have to have a pulley
removal tool. Put the pump back in place without the pulley. It is a
darn miserable process pressing that pulley on afterwards. You will need a
10 mm box-end wrench. You will need incredible patience. Having a
good friend helps, too!
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