If you have a Gen 1-2 Viper with the original plastic Power Steering Pulley, you are on borrowed time and need to upgrade to a Billet Power Steering Pulley ASAP! Losing power steering unexpectedly in the middle of a corner could lead to a very expensive day, injuries, and even death. Save yourself headache, time and money in the future and replace your stock plastic pullies now! Don’t get injured or increase the value of the remaining Vipers due to increasing their rarity.
We knew the plastic pullies tend to fail, but we (incorrectly) assumed that we had some cushion given that our low-mileage 1997 Gen 2 Viper GTS lives a pretty good life in an airconditioned garage and gets driven at regular intervals to keep everything working properly. With just under 10,000 miles on the clock, there are far less mileage and heat cycles that will slowly kill the components in our car. Or so we thought.
When leaving a friend’s home and giving the car a couple quick 4,000rpm bursts of throttle for his son who loves Vipers, we noticed a brief squeal from the serpentine belt. Shortly thereafter, there was a ‘racheting’ feeling in the steering wheel. This was the start of the failure of the plastic power steering pulley. The car was drivable for 20 miles or so, but low speed steering inputs caused the plastic power steering pully to ‘skip’ and ‘rachet’ around the splined metal center hub of the pulley. Eventually the belt was thrown entirely and the car lost power to the power steering pump, water pump, and alternator. Little did we know of the headache that would follow.
IPSCO sells Billet Aluminum Power Steering and Idler Pulleys to replace the 3-decade old OEM plastic pulleys along with an Aluminum P/S Pump Bracket to replace the OEM cast magnesium bracket that has been known to crack and fail.
Once the car was back in the shop, we can see that the power steering pulley remained intact, but the belt was nowhere to be found.
Upon closer inspection to the pulley, we can see the splined center hub completely detached from the plastic pulley. This allowed the pulley to spin freely around the center splined hub an accounted for the ‘racheting’ feeling in the steering wheel.
Due to the shape of the power steering pulley, the pulley remained intact without breaking apart into multiple pieces.
6 comments
Wow, it is unbelievable that such a critical part is made of plastic! This is a must-have for any Viper broken or not.
Not that big of a surprise given that this is a Chrysler product.
Thanks for the update, Billy. What other plans do you have for this beast? It is your personal street car?
Have you pinned the crank pulley yet?
Suddenly I’m glad none of my 30+ year old project cars have power steering!
Wow they were REALLY desperate to shed weight on these cars, huh?