John,

Our Michigan winters really play havoc on these lines, I too used Frank's
solution on my 84 Westy... it was wonderful, however now my PS rack is
leaking (not related, unless the flushing of the system cleared our some
junk that was keeping a seal in the rack from leaking.

So, my project for April 19th is, PS Rack Replacement.  Then my whole system
will be 90% (keeping my fingers crossed that the pump doesn't go).

Are you coming to Buses by the Beach next month, in Grand Rapids MI?

Jack R.
84 Westy Wolfie,
N. of Detroit

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
John Meeks
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 2:21 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Rusted Power Steering lines

Hi Group...

I've been driving without power steering for the last half of this
winter waiting for spring to find and fix the leak. This past weekend
we had two 50+ degree days so I cut the old lines out.

What I found was a rust hole at the rearmost rubber clip that holds
both lines to the frame of the van. The clip was holding splinters of
metal from the pipe. These clips should probably be inspected and the
metal treated on any van driving in winter road salt. This was the
only point of failure in the whole run of pipe.

I installed Frank Condelli's ready made hydraulic hose with no issues.
That's a really nice solution if you want to replace the whole run.

--
John Meeks
'91 Multivan, '85 GL bits
Northern Michigan
KC8ZFN
Vanagon Rescue Squad
http://www.vanagonauts.com/Vanagon_Rescue_Squad74.htm