Completed Project - Hydraulic Ram Assist Steering | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Completed Project Hydraulic Ram Assist Steering

Use this prefix for completed projects that are not "How to" articles or threads asking for help.
hydro1.jpg


FST finished installing they hydraulic assist ram on the Pumpkin. I bought the modified steering box from CoryL who originally purchased a kit from www.westtexasoffroad.com.

Cory kept the ram, so FST used a Howe, ram and steel braided hoses. The mounting is all custom fabrication.

At this time the power steering pump is still stock. That won't do as it doesn't have enough oomph to power both systems. It works, but not well smoothly enough.

In testing we put the tire against a wall and pushed pushed the whole truck sideways with the steering! I also made figure 8s in their parking lot with the front ARB locked and it worked... except, I blew the cap off the P/S pump, soaked the exhaust with fluid and actually started a bit of an under the hood blaze! Thank goodness for my well positioned halon fire extinguisher. It had the fire out in seconds with none of that white powder residue.

I'm dropping off a P/S pump core at Benchworks tomorrow. They will do a high performance rebuild on it which will increase the pressure and volume, after that it should be good to go!
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.











Looks nice!! Wish I had something like that for my X, coulda used it a couple of times to help get around obstacles, but I think it would probably destroy anything less than a solid axle up front.
 






Nice. I was trying to decide on one of these, but wasn't sure I had enough room to run one. West Texas Offroad is within driving distance from where I am (but then again, what isn't?) and I had contemplated taking my truck up there to get soem opinions.
 






Man, that's awesome Rick. I was with Cory this weekend and he fired his beast up for me and he had the front locker engaged and with his 38's and just sitting in the drive way i could stand out side his truck and turn it from lock to lock with 1 finger, i was amazed, you guys have got the setup!!

Happy trails!!
 






Looks good!!!

The steering box had been modified for more flow, but I was still wondering if the stock pump would have trouble on the double duty. It's the changing the hydraulic force to a mechanical one that sucks the power out of the stock pump.

My stock pump pushes the full hydro system fine!

The attachment point looks good as it's removable. I'd be slightly worried about rotating around the tie rod and possibly binding the shaft of the ram. That may be a bad observation from the pics however.

Looks like a 1.5" bore ram too which will work better than a 2" bore since you are only running 35s.

Let me know how the mods go to the PS pump. I'd be interested in that anyhow!
 


















Rick,
Look good, always thinking aren't we !

CoryL,
What about using a Saganaw Pump. they are modifiable for more flow and are mountable on a Ford with earlier stock mounts if you have a serpentine setup.

(Mid 80's Ford Vans w/5.0 or 5.8L have Saganaw Pumps and Serpentine belt setup)

Good Luck,

:usa: :chug: :ca:
 






I was just reading about hydraulic assist steering in Petersens 4Wheel (Aug '02) there is a pretty good write up in there on their Full Size Dodge running 40's.
 






Cory, I talked to the guys at FST about that mount. There are a couple reasons for it not being welded to the tie rod. #1 is to allow toe adjustment. If it was a solid mount it would rotate with the tie rod while trying to do an adjustment. #2 is that if it takes a rock strike and twists backwards it can always be twisted back into place.
 






I feel powerful tonight so I'm going to raise this thread from the dead .

Anyways, Rick, two questions if you dont mind:

1) Are you still using the stock pump? Or have you switched over to a different one?

2) What is the bore size of the hydraulic cylinder/ram?
 






I don't see a lock nut behind the rod end to prevent it from getting loose. How often do you grease it? Shouldn't there be a rubber boot covering it? It probably gets road dirt all over it when you go off roading.
 






I don't see a lock nut behind the rod end to prevent it from getting loose.
Thats a female heim joint -- often tightened all the way until the rod bottoms out on the heim when adjustment is not required. Bottoming out female heims minimizes the chances of the body cracking or splitting under lateral forces.
 






I am having a hell-of-a-time looking for a cylinder I can use. Who would have thought a 6x1.5 with a 5/8" rod would be so hard to find.
 






I know he was having problems with it for awile last year, and he was back to useing the stock pump last year for awile. I think it's was like that at this years t-haven run.
 












I am having a hell-of-a-time looking for a cylinder I can use. Who would have thought a 6x1.5 with a 5/8" rod would be so hard to find.
Nice hijack no hijack.

Why do you need a 5/8" rod? Cauz a 6"x1.5" with 3/4" rod is easier to find -- PolyPerformance has one: http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/product.php?productid=2756&cat=395&page=1

That one is expensive, but use da force (i.e. Google), I think I ran into two other sites that had them for about half the price.

EDIT -- I thought West Texas Off Road had a cheaper cylinder but I gues not -- $160.
 






[hijack]I was told with a 5/8" rod the cylinder with move in and out at relatively the same speed.

Anyway, now the Poly Performance site is confusing me with the Yota VS Dana VS 6" VS 8" knuckles. :(

[/hijack]
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





the Poly Performance site is confusing me with the Yota VS Dana VS 6" VS 8" knuckles. :(
Those figues are for the stock knuckles. But obviously you're using those bling Howdy-Hows-It-Going-Fine-Thank-You knuckles so the 6" is probably the best. You might even hav to limit it or else you might sheer the hi-steer studs. But I kind of remember that you did the measurement already and you came up with 5 something inches.
 






Back
Top