Power Steering reservoir removal question

[Dee2]

Looks like I have a leak from the power steering. 

 

I'm  guessing/hoping it's the o-ring under the reservoir.  Is there supposed to be a drain plug to empty the reservoir somewhere or another way to empty the reservoir before removing it. 

 

My turkey baster siphon doesn't seem to work in the funky shaped reservoir.

[joe5]

I think you've got an ea82 right? I don't know of a drain plug. Just pop off and plug the hoses. If you don't have a syphon, just take it off and pour it out. 

[Dee2]

Yes EA82, I need to get that in my signature. 

 

I was hoping not to dump remaining fluid all over the engine which I suspect will happen when I lift the reservoir off the pump ? 

 

Sounds like I just have to make a mess.

Edited September 9, 2014 by Dee2

[rdweninger]

Attach a 6" rubber hose to the end of your turkey baster.   Works for me.

[Dee2]

Attach a 6" rubber hose to the end of your turkey baster.   Works for me.

 

I'll get some small hose and try that.

[l75eya]

if you leave the cap on, remove the bolts while keeping downward pressure on the resevoir to maintain the seal, then after the bolts are removed (and lines obviously) you can just lift it up and flip it over pretty quickly with minimal spillage.

 

[Dee2]

So the hose trick was not getting me anywhere.  I did have excellent success with using a pump head and tube off a glass cleaner bottle.  Got it all out.  Got the res. off, no spillage 

 

Now the o-ring seems to have a cone shape.  Is that a specific type of o- ring or is it just shaped that way from years of installation ?  Anyone know the specific size for replacement?

 

Also, it almost looks as though there are supposed to be 2 o-rings:

 

One around the nipple on the reservoir, which is where the original one was found:

 

 

And a second in a groove on the pump

 

Edited September 9, 2014 by Dee2

[jono]

31263GA651 is a repair kit listing, likely NLA. The o rings are not listed individually either. Only time I get blank looks from Subaru parts is when I ask for PS O rings. Diagrams show seals just where you found them. Never sean triangular cross sections either. Think you guess correctly - mis shapen in service.I just use a seal, bearing supplier to make an educated guess on o rings

[wagonist]

I think others just remove the entire assembly from the engine first rather then separating the reservoir (well, at least I do ).

Less messy, but more work.

 

Triangular O-rings are just deformed over time due to the shape of where they are placed (same as the O rings into the A/C compressor). They start off round...

[Dee2]

So I put in the o-rings, I put in two instead of just the one, I'll see how that works.  Hopefully,  this will solve my steering pump leaks, time will tell.  Took it out for a test drive and all seems good.  I'm calling this job done.

 

As a side note,  I had a wire bundle behind the pump that was covered in plastic corrugated tubing.  When I touched it crumbled like a cracker.  So I had to run to the store and get some new tubing so I could get it covered while it was exposed.  It's amazing how brittle some of this old plastic gets.

 

 

As always, thanks for the help, it made the job much easier.