The truck sits most all the time so I may be able to tell which sensor is bad by looking at it, if it's caused by rust from moisture trapped under the truck. It looks like there's 3, 2 front, one rear center. Even if I just go for broke and replace them all it's still a good bit cheaper than the hydroboost unit.
Missed the cold weather and noise from the pump... mine does the same thing when it's really cold, goes away after it warms up. This is with the new pump. Not sure why, but hasn't been an issue for the past 3 years it has done it.
FWIW I saw at least one thread during my searches saying someone had changed from PS fluid to ATF and the cold weather noise went away.
When I changed mine out I used PS fluid, mostly because it's clear and I was doing the job with a turkey baster hoping the fluid would get clear once I had the old stuff all gone. It never did. I've never had it cause a problem in the cold, the steering's just a little stiffer and noisy.
