Those ZF pumps CAN BE REBUILT

[Alan Cordeiro <cordeiro@avlna.com>]

>From: "Paul C. Waterloo" <74543.407@CompuServe.COM>

>Well, it worked....for a while. Got on the highway, blew one of the o-rings (it
>squirmed out). Penosin everywhere! It ended up leaking from the only one that

>Do I have bets on how long it will last? I'm skeptical that it will last at
>least until about 5 miles from Lime Rock on Sunday. Then BOOM, penosin will be
>everywhere.

It IS POSSIBLE to rebuild those pumps. I have not had a single O-ring blow in
over 20 months.

Buy the ORIGINAL O-RING kit, $25 from Linda@Carlsen.

Clean the pump totally, and dry it. Make sure the "screws" that
have the "X" things on top are totally grease free. This HOLDS
the O-rings and keeps them from squirming while you tighten them.

Now apply a thin coating of silicone grease ( well, any grease..)
on the mating surface inside the pump. This will allow the o-rings
to stay in shape while you tighten them down.

Also, change every single O-ring in the whole pump. The tricky one to find
is the one below the pressure relief valve in the power steering reservior
chamber. The only ones I could not replace were the ones under the two
small hex-head sockets. So far they have not caused a problem.
Use the same technique when re-assembling the other parts that have O-rings
between them. One DRY surface to hold the ring from twisting and squirming,
and one GREASED surface.


Alan Cordeiro
'86 5kQ