Need a quick fix. I have an 89 K2500 4WD Suburban with a 350, The truck is loaded down for a 12 hour drive tomorrow morning and I just noticed a leak in the Power steering hose gong from the steering box to the cooler. I have to leave tomorrow morning but no one around has a new cooler in stock. I'm thinking of cutting the hoses to andd from the cooler and splicing together with a pipe and hose clamps. What are your thoughts? (No negative yelling please.)

 

Maybe its a V2500

 

Welcome to the forum. Is it the hose or the cooler that's leaking?

 

Don't have one on my 25 year old Chevy K-1500. It has synthetic PS fluid however..Just more crap you don't need, IMO.

 

It is the hose. It appears that the hoses are crimped to the cooler tube. I don't notice the hole when the truck is not running, but when I turn it on there is a pretty good leak coming from the hose about an inch before the crimp just above where the hose routs under the fan shroud. I doubt there is enough room to patch it but I could cut the hose at the leak and splice it into the return hose or possibly just attach to the pump return tube itself.

 

Sailor - in your instance, I believe I'd do the "splice together" route myself. If the leak is substantial, you'd lose all the fluid and that would be worse.

On my 1998 and 2004 Frontiers and 1988 Mazda truck, the power steering fluid "cooler" is simply a "U" shaped steel tube.