I know the steering is supposed to loosen @ idle and tighten @ speed, but it tightens @ idle most of the time. If I keep pressure on the steering wheel, it will finally release.
I'd love to help, but none of my service manuals show your car having variable assist power steering. Even '86 and '87 don't have it. The electrical connection you see at the pump, is a power steering pressure switch. All it does is tell the ecm that the engine is under load at idle when you crank the wheel hard and it bumps the idle up a bit so you don't stall the engine, but that's all it does. If you like, I can send you two wiring diagrams depicting the all underhood electronics, but I think you probably have a bad rack and pinion. Seems like a common problem from the small amount of checking I did.
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The belt is tight & the fluid is full & clean. It does it all the time. I see an electrical connection going to the power steering pump. Does this produce a signal for the variable assist to a control unit?? Is there a sensor for RPMs also??
I think you're right about the rack & pinion.
Thanks again for your help.
There are a couple of things to check first: Belt tension/ condition and power steering fluid level, if those are Ok, does it do this all the time, or just in the morning?
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