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The small leak on hose that comes from the reservoir to the pump got worse and now its starting to drip on to the alternator, which I know can mean fire.
I dont want to buy a new pump because Ive read its fairly simple to rebuild the old one.
Now how do i go about the ATF leaking onto my alternator? is it fine for a little oil to be there? or should I remove it, take it out, and throughly clean it.
Has anyone else been in this same situation, or have any advice to offer?
Step one: Remove hose.
Step two: Buy $1 length of hose from parts house.
Step three: Replace hose.
Step four: Tighten clamps.
Step five: Top off fluid.
Step six: Have a beer.
The small leak on hose that comes from the reservoir to the pump got worse and now its starting to drip on to the alternator, which I know can mean fire.
I dont want to buy a new pump because Ive read its fairly simple to rebuild the old one.
Now how do i go about the ATF leaking onto my alternator? is it fine for a little oil to be there? or should I remove it, take it out, and throughly clean it.
Has anyone else been in this same situation, or have any advice to offer?
Here is a photo of what im dealing with here..
Get it all clean and dry, brake cleaner and shop rags, so you can isolate the leak. Is it just the feed line? Is the hose rotten? Is there enough slack to cut out rot? Did the clamp strip? Replace it or retighten it. You might need to jam a towel into the hose barb and sand the rotten rubber and some rust off the outside to get a fresh seal.
Don't use a liquid leak fix product. Not going to debate wether they're good or bad but they're not for loose hoses we can all agree I think.
It would be a good time to change the fluid. You can disconnect at the pump there the leaking line and put it into your recycling tub, this will drain the resivore and let you clean the screen at the bottom. Attach your new line to the pump, and feed it fresh fluid thru a funnel till it starts outputting clean fluid to the resivore. Remove the old and trim the new line.
Your need to isolate and tackle each leak one by one. It's hard to tell if your pump leaks if the feed hose is spraying all over the top. That is to say there isn't an appropriate answer to do you rebuild the pump or not.
For the alternator clean up my go to is always brake cleaner, it's a high pressure solvent oil and dirt don't stand a chance. Just use some common sense like ty not to flood the gunk deeper into it or you will be longer cleaning it also. You can decide how thoroughly you want to clean it, there are plenty of things in an auto that could go wrong to worry about all of them.
my two wheel leaked out of all of those fittings re torque the clamps worked just fine on all, well not the one I stripped but I contend it was like that when I found it.
Good news is ATF is non corrosive and prevents rust unlike brake fluid. On the cleanup, I like to spray on a strong, non corrosive degreaser and then I fill a garden sprayer with the hottest water I can get. The low pressure hot water will safely rinse away the degreaser along with the oil and dirt without forcing it into the coils. Brake cleaner works ok too but it can eat up old brittle wiring connections if you aren't careful.
New hose is on and looks like no leaks.... Yet! The old hose was a bi*ch to take off, but with enough muscle and precision i got it. Didnt even make that big of a mess.
It was a little pricy at O'reily's at $15 for 2 or more feet so i cut 1 foot and kept the other in my tool box.
I suspect someone put PS fluid init and it caused the hoses to start breaking down. Time will tell if I have to replace tho o-rings on the pump.
There's nothing to rebuilding one of them either. Costs $10 or $12 for a seal kit and the vanes will be fine to run again. The first one I did, I didn't notice that the woodruff key was still in the shaft while I pounded it through the housing with a nine pound hammer. Just knew I had ruined it but the thing has worked flawlessly for years with no leaks.
Hi guys,
I also have similar leak around the hose. Could be just because of old worn out hose so I'll replace it. It looks like there is really no need for a formed hose, so I plan to get stock hose by the foot from NAPA. Any experience with stock hose (for ATF, not coolant) from NAPA?
I want to make sure I don't make a mess when I bleed/feed it?.
Which way does ATF flow? Toward the pump or toward the reservoir?
Last edited by RAD4Runner; 01-18-2017 at 07:40 PM.
Goes out B through the high pressure hose and returns through A (Low Pressure Hose). That's why it'll work with a hose clamp and a standard rubber hose. Rule of thumb in hydraulics. The small line is the pressure line and the big line is the return. As far as the hose stock, you want moderate temperature resistance and oil resistant. If they don't know what to give you, ask them for the type of hose turbocharger oil lines are made of.
Oh, and don't undo the return line with the idea that you can let a little of the air out and burp it. Baaaaad idea. I did that once and took a bath! It will bleed itself after a few turns to the limit in each direction.
Mine is a little different on my 3.0L. My reservoir is attached to my pump. I bet this is how your circuit is set up. Pump to gearbox via a smaller diameter line with crimped fittings (Pressure Supply Line in hydraulic terms). Gearbox to the reservoir through a larger line (Return Line). It may have crimped fitting on the gearbox end or maybe on both ends but won't be a high pressure line. Then reservoir back to the pump (suction line). This will be the largest and lightest duty hose and will probably have band clamps on both ends.
My 80 was doing the same thing. Engine is coming out soon so I'll fix the leak then. However I did relocate my alternator to the passenger side using the stock A/C compressor bracket and the alternator bracket (not sure what it's called, the one with the slot). I did see some A/C compressor brackets for $50 in the classifieds, if you wanted to relocate the alternator. On the other hand it probably won't cost $50 to fix the leak.
I have a '92 22R 4WD Longbed (rare) and started with the same problem as you: a small, but noticeable leak from the low-pressure return hose, onto the alternator. It did not look serious, so I just wiped it off occasionally and had no probs.(1st mistake) When my brother borrowed the truck (2nd mistake), I showed him the leak and how to wipe off the alternator and how to top off the fluid every now and then. He decided to employ a labor-saving strategy. Tie a rag around the hose to soak up the leak. (Do you see where this is going, everyone?). The rag got soaked and started dripping onto the alternator and the exhaust manifold, which of course started to smoke. My brother then took the truck to Jiffy Lube (3rd mistake) where they sold him a complete service and helpfully removed the rag. 2 weeks later enough fluid leaked onto, and into the alternator which promptly shorted out, taking the charging circuit with it.
The short end of it is, for a lousy $1.99 / ft. + tax (1ft. needed), I could have avoided having to spend much more. I finally ended up replacing the alternator and all the (original) power steering hoses as a set. There are 4: 1. high pressure line 2. low-pressure return from pump 3. low-pressure from reservoir to cooler tube 4. low-pressure from cooler tube to the steering gear. All clamps replaced as well. Total cost $115.00 + $1.00 for a used 80amp alternator fuse from Pick-and-Pull. Aftermarket hoses cost about $20.00 to replace all 4. The Dexron to fill the system cost more than the hoses! Anyway, as the title of this post says: "lesson learned the hard way".
Jiffy Lube is the worst mistake
A friend at our office told me of a power steering leak on her Camry and that a shop asked her to come back so mechs can look at it. I looked at it during 15-minute afternoon break, found the stock hose clamp on low-pressure reservoir hose, replaced it with spare worm-gear hose clamp I always have in my tool box. Shop could have easily told her her power steering pump was leaking and charged her for that.
I recently had the exact same issue but with much more gunk everywhere. I decided to do my valve cover gasket, front main seal (partly because I was leaking oil as well and partly because the entire front half of my engine block was coated in solidified ATF since buying it. I had no idea the engine block was actually silver in color) and originally was going to rebuild my pump but I messed up big time removing the old bearing. Decided to buy A-1 Cardone pump from Rockauto and installed it. Except it still leaked, made noise and I kept getting frothy ATF in the reservoir after following all the steps to bleed the system. I remembered there was an O-ring that I hadn't changed and decided to change it. No more noise and no more leaking. The leaking came from what seems to be the same spot in RAD4Runner's pump.
Everything above, below, infront of and behind the Pump was coated in ATF. And I mean everything.
Last edited by Lift4Reach; 06-08-2018 at 11:57 PM.
I didn't replace this o-ring as the new o-ring was not as taught and didn't "ride" in the cavity as well as the old one did. Thought I had the wrong one. Turns out I was wrong, and this new o-ring caused the frothing, leaking, and noise to stop.
12-19-2016, 04:54 PM
