Ted's Steering Upgrade, With A Twist

I got the power steering pump mount all done and the fan bolted in.

 

I pulled the steering box back out today to pull the sprocket off it and filled it up with grease. I used EP000 pourable grease.



And I put the fender back on, put the column on and steering wheel and painted up the steering box.



And of course nothing is easy... The suction line of the pump heads straight for the oil filter mount. I'll have to find a 90* fitting to put there instead of the straight one. I also flipped the cylinder around too like Howard said. It should work! All that's left is to make up the adapter for the drag link, build a mount for the remote reservoir, and make up some hoses.

 

While I was away for work, I had a friend drop off a drawing at a machine shop for a stud to connect the drag link to the valve. It fits perfectly!

 

This is really cool!

 

Just wanted to give a little update, I found all the hydraulic fittings at work. This weekend I hope to have it all plumbed up and maybe test it out.

 

I’ve been wondering, what should I use for hydraulic fluid? I was thinking AW32 hydraulic oil. Might be too thick for this? Would plow oil be better?

 

From my research when I integrated my plow into my PS pump, PS fluid is hydraulic fluid, but with extra conditioners and junk to prolong the life of the seals and hoses.

(And for those who say ATF is the same, it's not. That stuff has friction modifiers to help the clutches grab inside the transmission. That's not beneficial inside the steering system.)

IMO, the only benefit you'd have by running plow fluid would be the increased flow properties at extremely low temps. I'm not sure the extra cost of low-temp plow fluid is worth it for the first few minutes of a rare extremely low-temp day. Personally, I'd just run PS fluid.

 

Welp, I had a little set back last night. The corvette valve cracked when I was tightening up one of the fittings. Hopefully summit racing will take it back and my FLAPS has one in stock...

 

I was able to find a fitting to clear the oil filter bracket and my buddy made up a mount for the reservoir.

 

That is super cool.

 

I mocked up all the hoses. This is the cleanest way I could figure out to run them. These pictures were taken with the wheels all the way to the right too. There's a few chaff points I have to deal with, but nothing too major.





The steel tubing adapter is pretty ugly, but it was the only way I could make it work. I made my own adapters to go from inverted flare to JIC/AN. Ignore the drag link for now. I am waiting on the insert to flip it and I have to move the clamps so they don't hit the fittings.

 

I found this diagram and it appears I have the retract and extend hoses hooked up to the valve properly.

 

Nice job, collaboration, spit balling and is yet ANOTHER reason I like this site.

 

I crimped the hoses today, all looks good! I slid chunks of 3/4" heater hose over the hydraulic hoses where they were going to chaff before I crimped the ends on. And then....... I pulled the valve out so I can return it and get a new one. I want to try this out so bad!!!





I also started Ted up today for the first time since i put the pump on. I was curious how lined up the pulleys were and they look pretty straight!

 

Yep, this site is one of the best places for help on anything!

 

Sent the broken valve back and the new one is on its way. Hopefully it will be here Wednesday or Thursday.

 

I had moderate success tonight with the new valve. Hydraulic system works great. The steering geometry is off because I used the outer hole on the steering knuckle.

 

The the center-to-center distance of the pitman arm vs the center-to-center distance of the knuckle (from the ball joint to the drag link connection) is not 1:1. Seeing how I used the outer hole. The knuckle distance is longer than the pitman arm. Ted wasn’t steering all the way to the left because of this and on the test ride, he darted going down the road.

I ran into this exact problem on my 55 Chevy truck. I made the two the same and it drove like a dream. Just for ha has, I checked my ford pickup and my 83 k10 and sure enough the ratios were 1:1.

Now, I have never owned a wagon or pickup, so I don’t really know how the steering system is on those (assuming that’s where your knuckle came from). If they use a bell crank, maybe the difference is made up there. I didn’t check, but I’m pretty sure the two arms on a cj bell crank have the same center distances making the ratio 1:1. On a wagon or pickup, the ratio could be say 1.2:1 with the longer side being the drag link and the shorter one going to the pitman arm.