Power Steering?

I just don't know much about these motors to do that stuff myself. When I take in my truck to a mechanic who has been doing this stuff for years and years and they can't tell what it is from what I've told them which is exactly what I posted on the forum, I expect them to be able to fix it. Every time I tell them "After I've been driving for a while the steering locks up and doesn't want to turn unless I am giving it throttle. Then after it cools off it's fine until it warms back up." Yet they take it in the shop the next morning after it's been sitting all night, wiggle the steering around and call me up saying "We can't find nothing wrong with it." That happened at two KW dealers and a large repair shop. The first KW said "Oh there's a PSA on the reservoir location causing contamination so we gotta move it." Alright well they did but they used the same contaminated fluid and filter and I went 200 miles before i couldn't even steer it down the highway. I had to crawl to a rest area thankfully closeby and park for the day while i was under a load. Got it to another KW and they said "Ain't nothing wrong with it." I had to tell them to drain that ####, bleed it, and change the filter. Then it ran decently for a while before the PS pump starting howling and the issue began again. Then I can't take fighting it while trying to back anymore so I take it to the shop in Indy and they say "Ain't nothing wrong with it." I was so fed up I just told them to throw a new PS pump on it. Now the same #### is going on and I had to come to this forum to ask someone what the hell was wrong because 3 large heavy duty mechanic shops don't have a ####ing clue. Sorry to rant but this #### is just stupid. I have my hole clenched so tight every time I hear some odd noise or feel some odd vibration cause I cannot trust a single mfin shop to know what the hell to do. That's why they exist, to fix #### that i don't know how to fix, yet the best they can do is a PM service.

 

I'll see what I can figure out based on what yall have told me. I won't be able to get it to a shop for sometime simply because I can't afford to spend the time off. I did not mean to rant on this forum but sometimes I can't help myself. I respect mechanics, I really do, but when this kind of thing keeps happening over and over again it's hard to maintain that respect. Yes I'm the owner of my truck and that makes me responsible for how it operates yet shops exist for a reason and they don't seem to be...capable. I thank all of you on here for your solutions and now I have something to target instead of assuming it's something and throwing a few grand at it. Unfortunately the truth is that I should have come to this forum before trusting a shop to figure it out. Thanks for the help.

 

So just last night I was hauling a 40,000lbs load and as soon as I pulled the trailer out of its spot I could barely turn the wheel at all even while slipping the clutch to rev it up. My fifth wheel has always been all the way to the back and the tandems all the way up because of this steering issue to keep the weight off the steers. So I figured maybe the trailer was front heavy or something. I weighed it at the shipper and the steers had 11,800 lbs on them which is not bad at all. So I continue on and just turning onto an on ramp from the street was challenging. Pulled into a rest area 2 hours later because my hours were out and noticed the PS fluid boiling which has always happened when it gets worked up. Today I made it to where I was gonna deliver and one of the turns was really tight where I had to swing out into the intersection to not take out a light pole but I had to basically stop because the wheel wouldn't turn left, then wouldnt turn right. I had to stop in the middle of the intersection and max out the Rpms to get that ####er to turn all in an intersection. Nearly took out a sign with the front left hood mirror trying to get the ##### to turn. I can't afford the time to take it to a shop right now as I just got off a 34 hour break in the middle of nowhere (no shops within 150 miles) and it would set me back too much. I have 43 hours left on my 70 which will be around 4 days of driving so I'm going to stick it out, take it easy on turns (driving slow as ####), and make it last. I checked the hoses on the steering gear box and they all seem to be fine via the naked eye and feeling them. I'm also starting to hear popping sounds and feeling them in the wheel. At first I thought it was the tie rod joint but that's completely fine. So I'm guessing that popping noise which sounds like a bad ball joint would is actually coming from the steering gear box in addition to the other symptoms. I know you guys said don't just throw parts at it but honestly, I'm pretty sure for time's sake, I'll take it to a shop and say "Take that hunk of complicated metal off and throw a new hunk of complicated metal on." Looks like these things run about $600 new or something?

 

I just can't keep stopping and having this issue looked at over and over again and I don't have the expertise to do something like this without messing it up. I try to observe work being done when shops allow it but they rarely do. Hell they wouldn't even let me observe how to bleed the PS system of air when they drained the fluid a while back. My last stop for this issue where the mechanics swore up and down nothing was wrong ended up costing quite a bit and got me exactly 0 steps closer to fixing this. There's only so many components on the steering system so when they do pull the gear I'm going to have them inspect all the hoses and the entire reservoir which is already new thanks to the contamination from the first mechanic who thought it was the reservoir location. In fact I may have them do a flow test before doing anything with the gear. But that popping noise makes me think the gear is already shot any way. Like I said though, I don't know much so I have to rely on these guys to know what they are doing. Speaking of which, does anyone know of any good shops in El Paso?