Power Steering Pump

So I'm in the middle of redoing alot on the truck. Motor is currently out with some changes being made to the stuff I rushed on in the winter/spring 2010 when building it the 1st time.

Had a major problem with keeping belts from squeeking or coming apart since getting it going. Was removing the power steering pump the other day to clean and paint the bracket and noticed that the shaft has about 1/8" play in and out.

Is this normal? This one came off an 02 and installed used last year when I did the hydroboost conversion. Checked the stock one I pulled (still have in a box) and it has the same play.

A couple of years ago when it was all still stock, I had it chew up a belt out of nowhere. Then in the spring of '10, I converted everything to the SD brackets and setup. So both brackets and all accessories are now out of SD with the Alt being on the drivers side and a/c on the pass. So none of the old stuff was used again. Still had belt issues after switching to the SD stuff. Went thru 3 belts due to massive squeeking (2 NAPA and 1 Motorcraft). The last one ended up chewing off a "rib" this past winter but didn't completely come apart. It's like it has a pulley or somethign that isn't aligned perfectly and the belt "jumped".

Wondering if the play in the power steering pump is normal or if that coupld be causing my belt issue?

Thanks guys.

Ryan,
Just a question for you. Does it squeak when you start it up then goes away after it is warm or is it continuous.

A little bit of both.

When it first starts it won't squeak until warmed up. After a while (depending on how much I'm driving it), it'll squeak right away after startup and stay squeeking.

What was strange is that when it chewed that "rib" off the belt this past winter, it wasn't squeaking.

The normally have some play in them.

Well I guess I won't worry bout buying a new one then. Wasn't sure what the deal was when both my obs and sd pumps had it. Guess my squeak is from one of the other pulleys. I'm replacing all of them just to be safe.

1/8" or so is normal in a PS pump. What you have is an alignment issue.


I bet if you check the new pump with your other pulleys you'll find that the pump pulley is too far back on the shaft and you need to pull it forward some.

Mine has the same in/out play on it. I had a problem with mine squeeking a while back, ended up putting a new pulley and belt on it and all is well now with no more squeeks.

Not sure how it could be too far onto the shaft, but you never know. The puller/installer I have doesn't look like it'd let the pulley go too far onto the shaft.

I bought all new pulleys (ALL of them) and a new belt, so hopefully, that'll correct it.

Will be re-installing this weekend and hopefully have the motor up and running the weekend after that.

Also make sure the tensioner is not out of alignment due to wear.