howlerleeches

I own a 98 Cherokee and moved from Florida to Nebraska a couple years ago, and wasn't prepared for the winter. I neglected to check the antifreeze mixture in my radiator and ended up blowing the head gasket 3 miles away from home on the way to work. I just started it back up and drove it home. The I6 didn't seem to care; the oil was clean, but the water in the radiator was grey with oil. After I replaced the gasket, it ran great, and has been ever since.

However, during the repair, I broke the nozzle off of the power steering pump reservoir. I searched all of the local parts stores, but none of them had the part, so I epoxied the old reservoir back together. That worked well for nearly a year, until the epoxy came apart. When it did, it blew all of the fluid out as I was driving down the road. Then, I bought a reservoir for a 96, after learning that they're interchangeable(which seems obvious now). That worked fairly well, except I couldn't stop it from squalling at least a little(sounded like a Ford). After driving it like that for a couple weeks, the high pressure hose blew off, but I didn't think much of it, since it was old and looked pretty corroded. I bought a new hose, and that one also blew out after a short time (blew the hose right off the fitting).

So, I've been driving for a few months without power steering now, and I'm finally getting tired of it. I'm fairly certain the pump's dead at this point. I guess my question is: how likely is it that I have a problem with the steering box as well? Could just a problem with the pump cause a high pressure hose to blow apart like that? I'm not keen on having to spend a lot on a new steering box, so if anyone knows about power steering, and is willing to share their knowledge, I'd be really grateful.

rent-a-reaper

I just saw a thread about the 97-98 Dodge Durango Steering box being a direct swap for the xj. Hope it helps