so last couple day i have herd some squeaking and knocking under the hood it would come and go then last night it was really bad so this morning i looked at it and my power steering which has always leaked a little (RX-7) and i can see the pulley is not spinning right i tried to tighten but it spins the belt I have never done any work on the pulleys before so dont burn me up for being a noob please.

 

bump

 

bump bump bump

help a guy out here

 

I just looked at it and i think the p/s pump is bad

 

Your PS spindle is probably locked up. See if you can turn the pulley by hand. If you can't, then take the belt off and see if you can turn the pulley. If it still won't turn then you need a new PS unit. They are available in the for sale section of this forum for less than $100 usually. They usually don't cause problems though, except for the pulley breaking.

 

You might want to get a real mechanic to look at it. I've never seen one of those go bad and you don't sound like you have the experience to make that determination. No offense.

 

I actually have to agree with the guy above you. Why would you need to take it to a mechanic its either a bad power steering pump or its not, and if he can buy a used one for $100 thats cheaper than the mechanic telling him its bad or good. I think mechanic have there place but I just don't believe this is the time to bring it to a mechanic. Just my $.02

 

Thank you i dont have much time to get this car back on the road i go into the field for a few weeks and when i get back im moving houses

 

Your .02 with my .02 still doesn't add up to much

When I turn the main nut on my power steering pulley, it also turns the belt and all other accessories on that belt. My PS works fine so the analysis that if you turn the PS pulley and the belt moves doesn't equate to a bad PS pump.

PS pumps don't go bad overnight. They groan and make noise that you can't miss for a long period of time before they die. As a point of reference, my PS cooler hose burst 1.5 years ago and my PS has been groaning slightly ever since. A bad PS pump won't knock or squeak. It will make groaning noises.

Bad belts squeak but the don't knock.

A bad bearing in a pulley won't really squeak either - at least not until it completely disintegrates and basically seizes. If that happens, the belt will generally break - which is what happened in another car I owned once. Bearings generally groan when they are worn out.

Matt Hey is correct in his troubleshooting info. But the symptoms the OP reported don't lead to the conclusion of a bad PS pump.

 

That may be the usual symptom, but not always.

Mine was squealing quite badly.

Replaced the bearing in the P/S idler pulley, no more noise.

The old bearing was not seized, just somewhat hard to turn by hand.