Hey there, I'm a new '93 240 wagon owner and first I wanted to say thank you to everyone who makes this forum such a great resource. Now, my issue:

Since I got the car (it's got about 150k miles on it) the steering has been a little wonky when making full turns at low speed (as in backing out of a driveway, maneuvering into a parking spot, parallel parking), with the most obvious symptom being the steering wheel shaking/front end vibrating pretty harshly. As part of sprucing up the whole car I've put in all new belts, accessory bushings, inner/outer tie rods and ball joints, and had the wheels aligned. I've put probably 500 miles on the car since I've had it, and the steering problem has only gotten worse. At this point the wheels shake when making even less abrupt low speed turns. I've determined that air is being drawn into the system. No matter how much I bleed and purge, air continues to make its way in, and the steering suffers.

With the car off and up on jack stands, moving the wheel lock to lock results in big bubbles being forced up and out of the power steering reservoir, so much that it makes a big mess. This happens repeatedly and consistently. When I do this I can clearly hear a sloshing/squishing air noise in the steering rack itself. It appears that near a full right turn there's a point that air is sucked in, and then compressed up and out the reservoir when turning back to the left. The wheels also shimmy somewhat when nearing full lock. I've listened closely near the hoses / banjo fittings and it really doesn't seem to be that the source of the infiltration.

I fear there's an internal failure in the steering rack because this isn't happening while the car is running and the system is under pressure. I can understand small bubbles from a leak in a hose when under pressure, but without the pump running it seems to me the rack is the most likely culprit. For what it's worth, I believe I have a TRW rack (the boots taper down to the tie rod ends) with banjo fittings.

I just wanted to see if anyone had a second opinion before I go through the time/expense of sourcing and replacing the rack.

Thank you all very much!

 

It sounds like your rack may be leaking. Just out of curiosity, did you have a alignment done after you replaced ball joints & tie rod ends? I know that mis-alignment can cause shuddering on low speed hard turns.

 

Your system is not sucking air - That symptom is usually caused by a problem with the spool valve - google power steering spool valve -

The solution is a replacement rack where hopefully those wear points were addressed during the re manufacturing process.

 

Thank you very much for the reply, this certainly seems like a likely culprit. Any idea why this would cause air bubbles get forced through the rack and up out of the reservoir?

And does anyone have good advice on locating a replacement CAM/TRW rack? I have read through a lot of other threads and the consensus seems to be that the remanufactured options are not great right now. There was only a single 240 steering rack available from salvage yards near me and it was in way worse condition than the one I have. Is sending the rack to a rebuilder the only option at this point?

Thanks again guys.

 

Sure I've seen that before, wheels off ground, engine off, push steering back and forth, stuff is forced out of the reservoir - but that's not how the system is used - the engine is running and you turn the steering wheel.

I have heard from my local Volvo parts guy that's racks for 240s are hard to come by. Sorry

 

Well I bit the bullet and ordered a rebuilt steering rack ($$$). I also replaced both power steering hoses. Unfortunately the problem persists . While turning at low speeds (parallel parking situation) the steering wheel shudders/shakes pretty hard. With the engine idling and the front wheels off the ground there is a visible shake in the tire when nearing fully turned. The shake doesn't show up with the engine off, though. I've spent a while bleeding the system and am hoping that there's just some more air trapped that needs to work its way out.

If this new rack didn't solve the issue, what else could be my problem? As far as I can tell the only thing left in the PS system I haven't replaced is the pump.

I'm definitely getting frustrated and I hope someone can offer some insight.

Thanks again everyone.

 

Did you have an alignment done after replacing the rack?

 

Not yet but maybe I should. Since the wheel shimmy with the front end off the ground was still there with the new rack I figured an alignment wouldn't fix whatever my underlying problem is.

 

From my experience on my '90 240 you can get shuddering during slow turns if the toe-in is not set properly.