sigh. this is easy, quit taking it to the shop for this kind of stuff.

Pull the return line from the pump. cap off the nipple on the pump. Turn on motor it will pump out the fluid. add new fluid. repeat till satisfied.

 

Basically what I was going to do but not at the pump. In your method the pump does not run dry correct? Don't want a bunch of air in the system.

No worries about mixing fluids in your opinion?

 

pump doesn't really run dry. Soon as the flow stops you just turn off the key. If you flush the system 2-3 times all the old fluid should be out. I would just buy a gallon of mercon at walmart for flushing.

 

Thanks,
Any reason to do it from the pump and not at the reservoir as ford suggests?

 

I have only did the flush on my older trucks without a remote reservoir. As long as you are removing the return line for flushing it shouldn't matter. cap off the nipple/line coming from the pump that the return line slides onto.

Just sucking the fluid out of the reservoir, only removes some of the fluid. Removing the return line and pumping out the fluid will remove 90-100% of the fluid. I only suggest doing it 2-3 times because you were unsure if the green fluid was coolant or a synthetic powersteering fluid. With just a regular powersteering flush I would only have to flush the system 1 or 2 times.

 

Awesome. Will do and let you know how it works out.
Thanks for the advice.

 

If is actually some kind of synthetic powersteering fluid, it might not hurt anything. It's just a hydraulic pump. I've used motor oil, gear oil, powersteering fluid, atf, used motor oil, etc in powersteering system with no problems. Some people do say they think generic powersteering fluid caused their steering gearbox to leak over time. I don't know how that could happen, but quite a few people on the older truck forums have claimed problems from the generic powersteering fluid.

 

It's been in there for a few years now so what ever it is it should be changed.

If it was just dirty I would suck some out and top up with clean but without knowing what it is I need to do a flush.

Or I might just leave it. I just know that what is in there is not what the manual says should be in there. I'm not sure what I will end up doing. I'm not having any PS issues but it would be nice to have the peace of mind that it has clean, ford approved fluid.