Power Steering Seems Too Hot

I've honestly never felt one after normal driving. I do know that during a race, the mud would bake onto the box so badly I'd have to take a hammer and screwdriver to it to chip it off. A pressure washer wouldn't touch it. That's what prompted me to put a cooler on mine.

Hydraulics get hot. I wouldn't stress over it unless the fluid starts to smell burnt.

 

I have no idea what temp a power steering box should be. I do think Ron could be onto something though. I know that on later Jeeps the power steering box is not mounted parallel to the frame rail - the front of the box being more to the center of the Jeep. If you were to take a factory Jeep steering box and mount it parallel to the frame rail without repositioning the pitman arm I would think that the box would think it was making a left turn. Not sure if this would make it run hot.

 

A steering box's valve only sends fluid to a ram when the valve senses input beyond its static state. You could be doing circles in a parking lot, and if there is no resistance against the input vs output, the pump won't be applying pressure.

If the pump is constantly working under normal driving, I'd be more apt to think there's an alignment issue, where you're consistently applying counter-force to something that is out of whack.

 

Totally agree. Which is what leads me to believe there is no issue. The OP said the box is hot but the pump is not. The fluid friction would account for that. If the pump were working at near capacity at idle state, I'd think it would also be hot.

 

Looks like I gotta cannibalize that old Durango I have for the PS cooler.....

 

Could one use a transmission cooler built into a radiator for this?

 

FORD's have them too

 

I don't see why not, it just needs an in and an out. I was thinking of using two Durango coolers. When I was googling I saw people on pirate doing exactly that.

 

So I used one of those laser point and shoot temp things. I'm at about 180 at the inlet/outlet on the steering gear. So I guess I'm in normal ranges. So after all that I guess we've learned that Durango's should be cannabalized and possibly Ford's as well.

 

You could but right out of the box the radiator is going to see 185-200 degrees constantly........and if your not off road much & not running big tires , the cooler is probably not that necessary..............................off road , big tires and lots of steering inputs is what adds the heat..............with an external cooler mounted somewhere in the breeze , or away from any heated objects probably knock that down by 25-30 degrees.........heat is your enemy in that case....