Me and my wife recently became H3 Alpha owners (now we officially have a Mr. and Mrs.), and our vehicle came with a Cardone pump. It ended up failing within two days of us acquiring the vehicle (the pump was only roughly one year old), but because there were no other options available, I ended up going with another Cardone pump as a replacement. It worked okay, except that it leaked a puddle of fluid after shutdown, every single time I drive the vehicle.

Since then, I have been trying to find a solution to retrofit some type of GM OEM Power Steering Pump to the H3 Alpha, in order to offer a little bit more variety than Cardone, since they simply do not seem to last very long. Additionally, I have been trying to find a solution to the fact that since GM discontinued their reservoir for the H3 Alpha, unless you are an expert scrounger, finding one is all but impossible.

After a lot of time on the internet, and comparing a lot of images, I have finally found a solution.

This does require some ever so slight modification, and this is Version 1.0 of this modification; I am still looking/trying to find ways to make it better, but for now this is how far I've gotten.

Parts

1. PWR Steer Power Steering Pump 60-6732PR - Cross Reference 2012 Chevy Silverado 2500HD 6.0L Power Steering Pump. I went with the PWR Steer brand (wasn't sure if this was going to work so I didn't want to spend a lot of $$ on an OEM pump just yet). The PWR Steer brand also comes with a new pulley, and the part was available at my local O'Reilly Auto Parts which made it more appealing as well. Notice though, that this pump has the pressure hose fitting on the top of the pump (vice the bottom on the H3 Alpha pump), so you will need to get a new pressure hose. Thus.....

2. Precision Power Steering Line Hose Assembly - 13402629 - Cross Reference 2006-2012 Chevy Colorado 3.7L. I chose this hose because (at a glance, as much as I could envision by an internet image), it seemed like this hose would be able to be bent in such a way to where the connector could be routed to the top of the power steering pump.

Installation

I can give a more detailed write up at a later day (if anyone would like) but long story short, after removing the pump and pump bracket from the engine, I removed my old Cardone power steering pump from the pump bracket and installed the new Silverado PWR Steer pump/pulley. The Silverado pump was a perfect fit and was identical to the H3 Alpha Cardone pump. Absolutely no modification required in this regard. The new pump reservoir has two inlets (vice only one like the H3 Alpha reservoir) since this pump was designed to work with a Hydroboost unit on Heavy Duty trucks; all I did was take a rubber cap (one came with the PWR Steer unit) and tighten the rubber cap down with a hose clamp over the vertical most reservoir inlet. So far, absolutely no leaks.

When installing the new pressure hose, it was also a Perfect Fit in regards to attaching to the Rack & Pinion (which makes sense considering it is designed for the Chevy Colorado, which is what the H3 is based off of). Working from the bottom up, I curved the hose 90 degrees at the bottom and routed the hose upwards so that the metal portion was more or less vertical up through the engine bay. Once at the top of the power steering, I curved the rubber hose portion ~150 degrees so that the pressure hose fitting can meet the power steering pump. This hose is slightly longer than ideal and you'll probably have a little bit of excess slack which will probably end up near the fuse box on the right hand side. The hose is not a perfect fit in regards to being routed up through the engine bay but it does work and does not leak. Certainly not perfect, but hey, Version 1.0 of this repair after all.

In regards to connecting the new pressure hose to the power steering pump, it is a tight fit, but it can be done with a 17mm Crow's Foot. Almost impossible to do without one.

You will have to remove the old pressure hose from the rack & pinion in order to install the new pressure hose. If you have a power steering cooler installed on your Alpha, the pressure hose is attached to the cooler, which means you'll have to remove the cooler to remove the old pressure hose. This can be quite difficult, as the cooler is held in by 2x 10mm small bolts which are extremely troublesome to remove because they are located behind the cooler and blocked by the Rack & Pinion on the backside. You'll have to get creative to remove these; once you have the cooler out, you can remove the old pressure hose, reinstall the new hose & old return hose, and then re-install the cooler.

Not 100% advocating for this, but I personally left my cooler out and did not re-install it i. for simplicity sake, and ii. I didn't feel like screwing around any longer with the 2x 10mm bolts; they took me well over an hour to get both of them out, and I imagine would have taken me equally as long to put them back in. Basically, I was lazy.

Results

I hooked everything up, put everything back together, added some power steering fluid, and started up the vehicle; there was a little bit of noise immediately upon startup (not a crazy amount, just slightly louder than normal), but once I got all the air bled out of the system this seemed to subside and everything seemed to quiet down. I took the H3 and it's 5.3L of displacement on an hour long drive, then stopped to check the fluid level and look for leaks. Absolutely no leaks, which I was extremely pleased to see. After getting home, I decided to check the temperature of the power steering fluid in the reservoir since I had removed the cooler. At 60F, at sea level, even without the cooler, the power steering fluid temperature was approximately 140-150F right after shutdown.

Overall

So there it is: for what it's worth, it is entirely possible to retrofit your H3 Alpha 5.3L engine with a 2012 Chevy Silverado 2500HD 6.0L power steering pump, combined with a different power steering pressure hose designed for a Chevy Colorado. This makes it entirely possible to put a high quality AC Delco OEM style pump on your Alpha, and also allows you to purchase a completely new reservoir in case your current reservoir is dirty/clogged/cracked/etc. and in need of replacing. I must say, I am much more comfortable owning an Alpha now with this "repair" complete.

Goodbye Cardone!

Questions/Comments/Concerns/Ways to Improve/Spears - Post below!

Misc
PWR Steer Power Steering Pump 60-6732PR
Precision Power Steering Line Hose Assembly - 13402629
AC Delco Part# W0133-2263445 - AC Delco Power Steering Pump for 2012 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD - OEM


New pump mounted.

Removal of old pressure hose: 10mm bolt.


Removal of return line.

New hose installation; not a perfect fit, but you can see that it can now install on the top of the power steering pump.

Rear nub on reservoir covered with a rubber cap and hose clamp.

Return line attached.

Tight fit, but with a 17mm crows foot, it's manageable.

Everything put back together.

Closer Look at pressure hose.

Excess hose by fuse box. Don't mind the old battery vent hose.

Closer Look.

Rack & Pinion Connection #1

#2

#3

#4

Mr. & Mrs. 07 Manual (left), 08 Alpha (right). Bumblebee & Elsa respectively.

 

KUDOS! Nice work.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I will never need it.

If I eventually do, I would not use worm gear clamps.

 

Cool, good info. Thanks for sharing.

 

Could you please post the OEM part number for hose assembly., I need to check with parts shop.
Thanks for sharing

 

This is a Thread about a replacement Power Steering Pump for Alphas, not "hoses". Feel free to use Google or some other search engine to look it up yourself, like an online GM parts catalog.

Hint, look it up at RockAuto.

 

Thank you .
Actually I'm having same issue with my H3 Alpha and Colorado is not available in middle east market.

 

Since it's been about a year, I figured I'd give a quick update to this setup.

So far everything has continued to work terrific, and the power steering pump/setup has given me and my wife zero problems! Despite running the car without a power steering cooler in the south where temperatures routinely reach 90-95F, the pump has not failed or had any weird issues due to overheating.

I am not advocating for everyone to do this, but for those who run ATF instead of Power Steering fluid, I have been running ATF+4 in this pump, and it has not provided any issues so far.

I have only had one tiny leak up to this point (penny size drop overnight after a long day of driving), but this was due to one of my worm gear clamps failing on the return line hose, and not any issue with the setup itself. I replaced the clamp, and the small leak went away.

One of the big things I definitely would watch out for is if you use this particular Precision hose, there is a section of hose (coming from the power steering rack) that is metal and can easily come into contact/rub up against some sheet metal in the engine bay compartment (see my picture below). While this hasn't happened to me yet, too much rubbing could potentially wear out the pressure hose and cause a small leak. To mitigate this, I am going to take a small piece of rubber return hose, and clamp it around the pressure hose, so the rubber will be rubbing against the metal engine bay, not the pressure hose itself.


See this area of the pressure hose circled in yellow? In my setup, this part of the hose is rubbing against the sheet metal next to it, which could potentially cause wear and a subsequent power steering leak. I plan to mitigate this by wrapping the exposed metal piece of the hose with some rubber return hose, then using either zip ties or worm gear clamps to hold the rubber in place.

Make your own AN Fitting hose

I have NOT yet tested these products below, so I have no idea how well they work, but if you plan to use this setup with the 6.0L Power Steering Pump, yet want a better fitted hose than the Precision hose that I listed above, there is a company called FABBot who makes a Chevy Colorado Power Steering Rack Adapter that converts the rack to an AN fitting type setup. This makes it possible for you to custom make your own power steering hose(s) that can be much shorter/better fitted than the Precision Hose.

https://www.fabbotfab.com/products/0...y5Dd_CmDn44i8D

https://www.fabbotfab.com/products/0...23RNMbQ4Z1LVqY

All in all, this setup is still going strong, and has given me zero issues so far!

 

Excellent writeup thanks! I just noticed a pretty heavy leak in my steering system, but I haven't been able to take the time to zero in on exactly what/where the leak is coming from yet; hopefully it's not the reservoir. I am having no issues with the power steering, so I'm confident that the pump is still OK, but the leak scares me; hope it's the line and not the reservoir. I have noticed that it seems the OEM pressure line actually includes that "cooler", while the replacement line (Duralast 80880) that's available doesn't. Regardless, I'm not looking forward to changing it out; I need smaller hands! I can't even feel one of the two small bolts holding the cooler in place.

 

I'm curious if people that have experienced their pump failing had never flushed/changed the power steering fluid and if doing so, regularly, would prevent/prolong failure? I've had my '08 Alpha since new, HAVE changed the fluid, and in 18 years have not had a problem, (but I have to say I've only got 63K miles on it).

 

I just put the 6.0 2500 HD pump on mine. I ordered the high pressure line for that application with the topside fitting built in. I then cutoff the bottom of the original hose, which has the correct fitting to go into the rack, and had a local hydraulic hose company make a hose to tie those 2 together and it made for a pretty good solution.

i did find out the 6.0 pump has a smaller diameter shaft and the original pulley won?t work, so I ordered a GM part #12682902 pulley and it worked.