[scottg]

Steering works great right away.
After driving for a while it stiffens up and is nearly impossible to steer especially when trying to park.
It has a re manufactured pump in it but the problem never changed
when our local mechanics flushed the system he said he found metal shavings in the filter of the pump. said it looked more like dust or glitter.
I'm thinking rack and pinion at this point? not sure.
Any advice or help is appreciated I am not a mechanical genius. I plan to take the car on a 12 hour road trip soon and would like to figure out the issue asap.

 

[Submariner409]

If the pump/oil/piping has had "glitter" in it, you have problems. Reman or new steering rack, maybe pump - flush everything. Labor intensive, local Mom&Pop shop.

The fluid leaves the pump, to the rack, out and around the driver's side through the cooler loop, back to the pump intake.

 

[scottg]

The glitter was in the screen of the new pump but i was curious as to whether it was from the old or new pump. the previous owner let the pump run dry a couple times as the high side pressure hose had a massive leak in it. I replaced the hose and the pump seemed to actually run just fine until this problem came up but the new pump never solved it either. yes it was dumb on my part to not just replace it right away knowing the circumstances. What brand might you suggest for a reman rack? I had the system vacuum bled and flushed after the dust was found. I am pretty sure the pump is still working but Ive heard of reman pumps going bad on a regular basis and quite frequently.