My son has told me that on occasion the steering wheel will seem to lock up on turns while driving. It then requires significant effort to bring it back. The car is a '92 940. It does have a slow power steering leak.

Anyone have any experience with this kinda thing?

My 740 has no power steering due to a massive leak. My son drove that car for a couple of months and says the issue with the 940 is significantly different.

Thanks.

 

fix what you already know is broken, and then worry about it if its still fubar.

 

Normally you would see something like this with the CV joints, but seeing as this car does not have them on the front, my guess would be intermittent failure of the power steering pump due to it running dry on a number of occasions.

That or something is binding in the front suspension
pop the wheels off and check the bushings

 

I drove a dodge colt for 4 years with a dry power steering pump and never had an issue with binding. Drove a 740 for 2 years with a dry pump with no issues. We've been driving a different 740 with a dry pump for the last 4 months with no issues. Its been my experience that a pump will whine and let you know its running low on fluid and the it does not whine. It's a very very slow leak and a bottle of tranny fluid is kept under the hood for easy top offs. All that being said I understand and appreciate your mention of the pump possibly being issue.

I've replaced the front bushing on the radius/stay arm on the drivers side. The passenger side needs done as well but unlike my 740 the exhaust pipe on the 940 is blocking the rear bolt from coming out all the way. If it had only been built with the bolt inserted the other way it wouldn't be a problem.

Both outer tie rods have been replaced. Driver side ball joint as well...gonna do the passenger side ball joint when i figure out the stay arm bolt.

The car needs struts. Do ya think it could be the strut mounts binding?

 

My assumption was based on the fact that if the PS pump caught air then there would be a sudden change of feel when steering

You seem to have some bad luck with Power Steering systems, what’s the deal with that?

there is a change that there is binding everywhere
strut mounts
struts themselves
steering rack
ball joints

pretty much everything in the front suspension, especially if you are replacing parts on only one side at a time. Although technically you can replace the the left whatever or just the right whatever, but it won't wear in any predictable way

 

My ps steering woes I just chalk up to old cars. The Colt (aka mitsubishi mirage) was 20 years old when the tranny had a stroke and died. We know the redblocks are old. I have tried to be proactive with my latest 240 and turkey basted out the fluid and refilled over the course of a few days.

I generally replace both sides figuring that when one side goes the other is soon to follow. I ain't done that ball joint cause the stay arm bolt pissed me off. I'll try again this weekend.

After that I'll start on the struts...sway bar links...and maybe even that slowly leaking ps line.

Thanks.

 

The symptoms described point to a bad steering rack.

 

Fixed the ps leak.

The problem occurred again yesterday in a parking lot. When i turned left i think the passenger side tire did not turn. When i brought the steering back to straight the passenger tire went to the right. I stopped the car...got out and saw that the driver side tire was facing straight ahead while the passenger tire was cocked to the right.

Got back in...turned the wheel to the right while moving and then back to straight and everything was fine.

 

Sounds to me like it's time for a new rack.

 

That's +2 for a new rack...and that kinda sucks.

Reading over this thread from the beginning I would like to say that there is no extra effort required to turn the wheel when this problem occurs.

 

It's kind of a safety concern when your wheels stop going the same way. I'd just get a junkyard rack.

 

I had a similar issue. Turned out that the tension on my PS belt was a bit loose. As more pressure was needed on a tight/quick turn, the belt would slip and I'd lose my PS momentarily making it seem as if it had locked up. I changed my belt and tensioned correctly - haven't had the issue since.

 

This problems seems to happen on sharp turns...and i remember the car threw off the ps belt several months ago. I'll check the tension on the belt.

 

Never mind this post. It was the 240 that threw a belt. Sometimes i get the 240 740 and 940 mixed up.

 

There's lots of jy here in central ohio but only 2 that post inventory online. And they have not had any 740/940 for several months. Good thing i got a 740 parts car. The rack on it probably ain't no good...it ain't had fluid in it for a few years now. But i can get some practice removing the rack...and have a core ready to go.