Rebuilt PS pump, now can't get the air out!!

[alia176]

I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong! Per the How To Documents, the two O rings and a gasket were replaced in the PS pump. It was running fine but since I had everything out of the engine for the front engine re-seal project, I figure might as well do this.

The O ring under the PS Res is about three years old so I reused it and now I wonder if that's the cause of air sneaking into the system. The O ring "seemed" to be in good shape - not flat, still round and supple. The O ring on the high pressure output line was replaced and I wonder if that's too small Now that I think about it, if it was too small, I should see PS fluid leaking and I don't see anything.

My symptoms are excessive noise, louder whining with engine rpm increase. I do see very tiny bubbles that's in the fluid. Steering seems to be doing ok, nothing funky going on there while the car is being driven. Car feels normal at speeds.

While I had the pump apart, I made sure that all the vanes in the cartridge (center rotating part) were in place. One thing I did question was the orientation of the cartridge itself - it seems like it can go in either way and I wish I took a picture of it before taking it apart

Bleeding was achieved by idling engine and turning steering wheel lock to lock slowly. The level of the fluid stabilized and no longer overflowing out of the res. So, I'm not sure where to go next.

Thanks for any input.