My daily driver 97 xj country started gushing PS fluid from the pump(not one of the two hoses), I usually do the repairs on it since it's pretty easy to work on. But the problem is it happened in a mall parking lot kind of far from my house. I'm afraid of the PS fluid going on a hot part and catching fire if I drive it back to my place (about 20 miles). My question is: if I can get the rest of the PS fluid out of the pump and clean up whats already all over my engine bay can I at least drive it to a shop thats a few miles away without fear of catching fire? I may just be super cautious but I don't want to see my jeep go up in flames.

You should be OK, I've never heard of Power steering fluid starting a fire - most fires are due to electrical issues. I'd clean it up and go. Bring a small fire extinguisher if you're worried.

Thanks for the response PatHenery, cleaned all the excess PS fluid off and got it to a shop. Just waiting on the quote, hopefully they don't sting me too much.

If it's just a bad pump and the steering gear is ok, the sting should be roughly $250 or under depending on the shop, regional pricing etc.
A pro mechanic should have the pump swapped out in under 2 hours (so $100/hr avg labor) and the part is probably $50-75 retail (usually Napa type supplier that delivers)

Yeah thats what I was expecting 200-300 but online they were saying 200-900. I bought new hoses cause at first that's what I assumed it was it was(I was by myself and couldn't get a good look at it when it was running cause PS fluid was flying every where off the pulley and you know, 23 year old hoses) and I had a new belt laying around from a different project so I'm just going to have them take care of it all while they are in there. It was squeaking real bad on the 3 mile drive to the shop. I contimplated trying to drive it all the way home and fix it myself but I just don't have the time to commit to it to get it back on the road quickly. Five 12 hour shifts in a row this week for work, guess I should just be thankful that I'm still employed. Again thanks for the advise.

As a side note, Cardone remanufactured pump and gear are crap quality. The one I installed is louder than hell when cold and very high steering effort. Lots of other posts around here with similar poor quality complaints.

Good to know! Any word on how the remanufactured ones from napa are?

I try to find Mopar whenever I can. I don't know about PS pumps though. Try to find a parts catalog to get the part number, then do a google search and "part number" search at RockAuto. The mopar stuff can still be found for many things and the prices are surprisingly reasonable on a lot of it.

If not, Napa is usually a safe bet, but I'd go with "new" if they have it and WITH the reservoir as well. "With reservoir" is the more important of the two IMO. I've never had success swapping an old reservoir onto a new pump, but I've only had a couple attempts at it.