Hello gentlemen,

I have a 56 TBird. About 1-1/2 years ago I noticed it was leaking power steering fluid, quite a fair amount, so I replaced 4 hoses with new ones. The system still leaked, but the leak seemed lesser, the steering was equivalent left and right, and it worked well (except for the leak). I don't have a lift, and I am not a young man any more, so it was easier for me to top it up as needed than to crawl underneath and start all over again. Then last week I heard a noise as I was making a hard right turn at about 5 mph while simultaneously hitting a bump in the road. I lost power steering immediately. Fortunately I was only a short distance away and carefully nursed it home. I had blown the pressure line that emanates from the pump reservoir. It blew right at the coupling where it goes through the rubber sleeve mounted in a bracket on the inner fender.

I cleaned it up and ordered a new hose from Gates, along with a new filter element, and new gasket for the reservoir lid. Today I replaced them, and filled the reservoir with Type F with the correct amount according to the dipstick. Then, front wheels still dangling, I slowly worked the steering all the way to one lock and then the other to remove any air, but I didn't see any bubbles like you would when bleeding brakes. Then started the engine and did the same, lock to lock, under power. It performed fine, but when I checked more closely I saw thet it had burped fluid out the fill cap hole, enough to make it noticeable around the engine bay and on the floor. Upon removing the fill cap and slowly working the steering wheel lock to lock (with engine off) I now hear a discernible gurgling coming from below, while at the same time I can see the fluid rise up quickly in the reservoir toward the fill hole, even when turning the steering wheel very slowly. So there's something wrong.

It occurs to me that this might be a blown seal in the ram. But would that induce the fluid to rise up this drastically even when the system is unpowered?

Since the steering was performing equilaterally, I figured the control valve was probably OK. But I'm not real well versed on this so of course I'm not sure. I can't be up top and under the car at the same time, and I don't have anybody to help me right now, so it's kind of hard for me to properly diagnose much, other than what I've written down here. So any thoughts or advice would be very welcome.