power steering issue

[Fox]

just hooked up the power steering turned the wheel all the way left and right to get the air out (the car had been pushed around without the pump) it acts like manual steering, the pump isnt making any strange noise, and is a known good pump. can the rack be the problem? i just don't want the pump to lock up or something

[4 l-bodies]

Yes when racks go bad besides leaking externally they can sometimes be very hard to turn left or right esp. when its cold out. Many times when vehicle gets up to operating temp the racks will start to have assist back.
Todd

[RoadWarrior222]

I had one sitting a while, seals might have gone a bit dry or something, was just above low on stick, whining bad, hard to turn, topped it off to full, ran engine warm, assploded fluid out like a 5th grade science fair volcano, cut engine, looked at everything, shrugged, topped off with fresh again, ran good, whine stopped, steering got full power, ran fine for 7+ years, minimal consumption, like quarter inch to bring it to full yearly. Picked up used good wrecker pump soon after "just in case" but never got round to sticking it in. I guess it was just trapped air and it burped violently.

[Fox]

guess it could still be air in the system, the rack is the only part that i'm not sure of, everything else i know worked previously. if it is the rack i'll just have let it go for now it doesn't seem to be leaking just has no power assist

[RoadWarrior222]

There's no way you coulda put lines on backwards is there?

[Fox]

sorta did, forgot to put the pressure valve in under the outlet fitting,only put the spring in. found it in with the old fluid today :p

[RoadWarrior222]

Well great discoveries have been made by people saying, "Well lets see if it works like this..." .... in this case not, but the path to genius is littered with failures :D