Power steering prob 91 4X4

[EZGZ]

Been gone for a long time my friends.
I had this weird electrical problem where my brake lights and turn sigs were acting up and I refused to pay someone else to fix it. So since I have several other things to drive I just let it sit and waited till I was in the mood.
Turned out it was a broken trailer connector shorting out.

Anyway, now that winter is here again I wanted to drive the truck and get that old summer fuel out etc. Nice to have 4X4 in the winter just in case.

So I jumps in and the trusty sled fires right up and off I go down the road. I notice the steering a bit twitchy and make a mental note to check the tire pressure.

On my way back from the toy store I get a couple more good jerks on the steering wheel and the nightmare starts creeping back into my memory.

About 4 years ago my steering pump started sticking and jerking so bad I had to get help or park the darn thing. I took it to a shop and they wanted $600 for a rebuilt unit. Plus install. "NO WAY" So I called a buddy and we decided to just get a battery filler sqeeze bulb and suck out everything I could from the resavoir and put in some conditioner. " It worked " It never ran dry and worked great untill now when I want to start using it again.

Same symptoms but not as bad. She was only a tad low and still showing on the stick. So I goes to the local Auto Zone and a couple others to look for this high dollar steering pump conditioner and all I see is leak fixer and standard stuff.

I ended up getting the Valvoline semi synthetic fluid/conditioner/leak magic.
Sounded like a lot of contradiction to me.......

So I suck out the old and dump in the new. Drive it for a while and do some extra turns. Suck as much of that out as I can and add some more. I figure I have replaced about 1/2 quart in this mannor.

As I recall it took sometime for things to loosen up the last time.

I thought I would drop this post and see what you guys think. We all know that if this thing takes a dump it will be when I need it most. So would just as soon be proactive if our poll so dictates.

Like I say it isn't a leak problem just a sticking valve and it cleared up ounce before. It's just that the truck has sat for 6 months. I wonder if anyone else has had similar problems or good results or if there is some other liquid magic to try. I really don't want to tear it apart unless I have to.

Thanks in advance for your input or experience.