Sounds like your power steering rack. I'm not much help for that but I will
recomend you remove the belt to the power steering pump before it goes too
(if it hasn't already). You can drive "manual" just fine until you get the
rack fixed or replaced.

On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 10:50 PM, Matthew Snook <matt@snooksband.com> wrote:

> Ok, all you experts out there.  My '84 Westy developed another 'issue'
> today.  Or yesterday, I should say.
>
> Yesterday at the library I noticed a trail of steering fluid - a series of
> 'dots' close enough to know that it was _me_ pulling into the parking slot
> -
> and a small puddle of steering fluid under the front end.  So I topped off
> the cylinder and kept watch the rest of the day in town - I didn't notice
> anymore trails so I figured it would at least let me have another day, and
> I
> made a note to look into it as soon as possible, which didn't happen to be
> right then.
>
> Because today I had to drive to Hermiston and back on two counts of
> business...  Well, I got there just fine, but noticed that the steering was
> stiff.  And there's fluid all over the right side of the van!  This time it
> just blew out everything it had!
>
> So... No more waiting!  Before I jump into my first steering mess, are
> there
> any pointers or things to look for?  Other than "don't wait 'til it blows
> up."  Too late for that one.  I'm wondering if there are unique and out of
> production parts that I'll have to search for, or anything like that.  I
> guess I'll know more tomorrow, when I get under there and see what's
> leaking.  Any predictions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Matt
>

--
Thanks,

Jeff
'90 Carat (Grover)
'86 (We call this one Parts)
'78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus