93 Achieva Chattering

I've been doing quite a bit of reading on the forums trying to diagnose a problem with my 93 Achieva 2.3 SOHC.

Here's what's wrong with it: It has a kind of rough idle - it sits right around 800 rpm but you can see the needle move up and down and here a chattering from the engine. Not really metal on metal but a noticable chatter or clicking (?).

So I read some more on this website and a few other ones.

It looked bad. Main bearings or hopefully just a harmonic balancer. I don't know too much. I ain't no car guy; I just look up the problem or follow the instructions.

The other day my buddy and I took a look to see if we cold locate the problem. After attempting to listen and feel for the source, he noticed that the power steering pump was vibrating quite a bit.

So he jumped in the car and turned the wheel right. The noice is gone and the idle is smooth. Turned the wheel left, noise gone, idle great!

So ... what am I looking at repairing here? Everything I've read about power steering pumps says the problem appears WHEN TURNING the wheel, not the opposite (noisy when not turning the wheel, fine when pressure is applied to the steering wheel). I'm just curious - pulley, pump bearings, does something need to be adjusted?

By the way, steering is fine. No problems since I've owned it.

Thanks for your help. Let me know if you need any more info.

did it overheat bad?

I would look at the check valve in the power steering pump where the pressure line comes into it. Sounds like the check valve is sticking and causing the pump to run itself dry, causing it to be noisy, and when you turn, the increase in pressure works past the sticky valve and quiets it down. If there are no metallic particles in the fluid, I would just replace the check valve. If the fluid is full of metal particles, the pump has started to self destruct and you need to flush the system and replace the pump.