Woah,,,, time out...

It's not possible to accurately guess what is wrong with the steering on your truck over the internet. It's also not possible to do it over the phone, if you would try to call a shop and ask them how much is it to fix it without them doing any testing. In fact, it's SO WRONG to go about it that way that anyone that attempts to give you a price without first diagnosing the problem is the place to stay away from because they don't know enough about the system to know they can't guess a price!

I'll show you how good it is to have someone guess without seeing the truck. I will guess the belt fell off the pump, that will be about $80.00. Now being serious that is only one of the most obvious things that need to be checked and confirmed as ok, or not ok. From there nothing short of a full inspection of the steering system which includes attaching a pressure tester is going to lead you directly to the answer. So find a good shop, with good techs, and pay them to diagnose the truck, then pay them to fix it correctly, and you will get value for the money that is spent.

Hey John_g,

Thanks for your reply. I'm sorry, I wasn't looking for an exact figure. I was just hoping that someone could give a me a ball-park figure (i.e., to replace the whole thing). I agree that it's hard to accurately guess car problems. But, thanks for the info about having to hook it up to a pressure tester.

Thanks again.

NO-ONE should replace "the whole thing". There may well be more than one failure, or more than one part associated to the repair, such as for an example a hose that won't survive the repair process. But looking for the whole thing first will have shops starting off on the wrong foot. Test correctly, and repair from there!

Just curious, is this thing new to you or what? It either has power steering or it doesn't. If it has power steering and all of a sudden it doesn't, check to see if the belt flew off. My son has an '86 and it has a separate belt just for the power steering.