109: Saturday 30th January 2010

I now have the replacement DC-DC converter and the 120v ceramic heater core. The DC-DC converter is an updated version directly from the manufacturer, but the case is slightly wider than the one I had before and this means that I need to make a new bracket as this does not fit in the battery hold down bracket anymore. My friend in America has sent me the heater core, but he also kept all the wiring and switches intact and sent it all to me connected, so I can match the wiring to what I already have. It looks about the same size as the 240v one that it will be replacing. Today I was trying to get the power steering working properly. I bled the pump by adding some fluid and working the steering from side to side. This made little difference and the motor was running very slow and getting hot like it was on load all the time even when the steering was not being used. I took the system off the car in case the pipework was stressed where I have moved the pump several times. I slackened and refitted it all back together. I ran the pump on the bench with a battery and then it was fast and ran freely. I put the system back on the car and bled it again, but it was still very slow once the air had gurgled through. The fuses blew this time too. I ran it with a jump cable and it ran slowly still. I am concerned about the amount of load on the motor.