Hello all,

I have a 1994 Chevy Caprice Classic Wagon and the power steering is acting up occasionally.

The power steering will work fine 90% of the time, but the remaining 10% the assist will be somewhere between "full power" and "no power".  This will often but not always happen after starting the car and backing (or driving forwards) out the driveway, and it doesn't matter if I let the car warm up for a few minutes or not.  It will also occasionally happen after getting off of the freeway and coming to a stop and the end of an exit ramp, or cruising in the city and making a turn either direction at a light, or once in a while in a parking lot.  It seems that I always have some assist, but there is no real consistent pattern of when it will drop off, with the exception of having low engine speed.

The power steering fluid reservoir is filled to the correct level, and I plan to change the power steering fluid entirely.  If you have any other suggestions or tips, please chime in.

I see that problem rather regualrly with GM vehicles. I don't know what causes it. Sometimes there is a squeek that I assume is the PS belt? How does that look?

I'd start with flushing the PS fluid like you said plus cleaning out the PS fluid reservoir.  On my old supra my fluid which was ATF fluid turned brown, the reservoir had a fine screen on it which clogged with brown gunk.  Basically you remove the return line from the reservoir, block in the inlet ont the reservoir so it doesnt leak, then use a barb to connect clear vinyl tubing from the return line to a bucket or something.  Then start the car and pour in fresh fluid while the old fluid goes into the bucket.  When there's fresh fluid going to the bucket, reattach the return line to the reservoir