Power Steering Reservoir Filter

[jimshoen]

Finally broke down and changed my power steering reservoir filter. It is locating directly above my chassis batteries. Purchased the filter from Prevost. Unfortunately the convertor failed to follow the "due regard for your neighbor" clause when they wired up all the isolators and equalizers.
The area above the reservoir that allows you to take the filter out of the canister is now half filled up with large cabling and wire bundles. Just checking the fluid level is a bit of a trick, and changing the filter (50,000 mile or one year interval) is down right maddening. Ended up removing about 15 large wire ties so I could push the wire bundles partly out of the way. Then unbolted the two outboard mounting bolts holding on the canister brakets. That allowed access to the two clamping (pinch) bolts on the brackets to loose the canister from the mounting brackets. Of course all the fasteners are very difficult to access, and the nuts on the pinch bolts are sick. Used two pairs of needle nose vise grips to hold the nuts on the pinch bolts. There is no visual access to the nuts so once I got the vise grips attached I did not want to let them go until it was back together. Loosened the pinch bolts. Then unbolted the two large hose clamps which support the large hose coming out the bottom of the canister. At this point I was able to lower the canister in the bracket about 1.5 inches and in combination with pushing on the loosened wire bundles remove the old filter. This is a three arm job, but your head can be used.
Reversed the process and bang the filter is changed.
This little adventure only took four hours. Next time it will only take two hours. Interesting how a 15 minute job can take half a day.
P.S. I am using the milage interval not the time. It is possible that this is the first time this filter was ever changed? 146,945 miles

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I will be changing mine soon and on previous changes found that rather than deal with the junk in the way I was better off to disconnect the reservoir bracket, spill the contents into a pail and remove the top while it was laying over facing me.

The first Liberty had it on the left rear near the top of the door opening and it was easy to do. This one, like Jim's, not so easy.

[jimshoen]

Jon, That is a good idea. The reservoir only holds two or three quarts of Dextron. Next go around I will do that. Thanks

[hhoppe]

This is the first time I have seen anything written on this subject. I checked with my new found mainjtenence shop in Sacramento and to my suprise changing the power steering fluid and filter is done fairly often on vehicles getting a lot of steering use. As with fire trucks and other city dwellers. The heat generated turns the fluid black. The next decision is do you go with dextron or motor oil. Has anyone got any recent info from Prevost as to this choice. Fire back quick if you have because I will be getting into mine this Thursday when I do the water service again. We lost too much cooling fluid along side the road when the high heat sensor was removed and changed. We did not have any extra of the correct antifreeze to replenish it. We had to resort to adding water until we reached civilization. Something to think about carrying along with your spare high heat water & Oil sensors.
Thanks for the previous info from Jim and Jon.

[jimshoen]

Use what is recommended by Prevost. My July 1996 chassis uses Dextron III. Look on the Power Steering Reservoir canister or your prevost service manual. My fluid was fine. All I changed was the filter.

[garyde]

Hi Harry. Yes, Prevost recommends Dextron lll.

[dreamchasers]

I remembered this post from Bruce that when he had the power steering fluid replaced with motor oil while at the Prevost Quebec service center. He spoke highly of the result. I think it would be a great upgrade for me.

http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/...ring#post31316

Perhaps Bruce could shed more light on the subject.

Hector

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I am sure that other than Dextron III may be acceptable, I will stay with what is specified for my coach until Prevost issues a service bulletin advising of alternate fluids.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Hector DD is not the only manufacturer that allows motor oil. I used to put straight 30wt in a Cat power steering pump. Has to be straight weight, multi-grade will foam up.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I get concerned when alternate fluids are used and their use is not contained in an owner's manual or covered by a service bulletin.

We have all run into mechanics that are smarter than the engineers that design the product, and those mechanics often have their own way of doing things. The problem is they don't have to pay for their bad advice or mistakes. We do.

Use of motor oil may be perfectly acceptable, but if it is I would imagine Prevost would issue a revision to the service manual or a service bulletin. Joe states he can use straight weight motor oil, but not multi grade. I can accept that, but before I start dumping other than Dextron III in my power steering reservoir I want to know what weight oil, if it has a MIL spec, and if multi weight is not allowed I want to see that in writing. I would also want to be assured that I can mix Dextron III and oil, and if I cannot, what procedure is required to purge the system.

I doubt there are any using motor oil in their Allison six speed transmissions, but when the Allison five speed transmissions were more common there were owners and mechanics using oil in their transmission instead of Dextron. That probably made the Allison folks happy because they got more service work.