Brody
May 11th, 2009, 07:26 AM
These instructions come from the folks at PSC Motorsports and are easy to follow, comprehensive, and work very well.
http://www.pscmotorsports.com/page.html?chapter=5&id=24
Before doing any modifications to your vehicle you should always disconnect the battery.
Check to make sure that all of the fittings in power steering system are tight.
Raise all steering tires off the ground.
Fill reservoir with power steering fluid. Never use Automatic Transmission Fluid. Leave power steering reservoir cap off.
Cycle the steering from lock to lock 3 - 4 times.
Check and refill reservoir if needed.
Repeat steps 5 and 6 until a consistent level is reached.
Reconnect battery. Replace power steering reservoir cap.
Start vehicle and let it run with out any steering input for 30 seconds.
Turn off the engine.
Check and refill reservoir if needed. Replace power steering reservoir cap.
Start vehicle again and cycle steering from lock to lock 10- 15 times.
Turn off vehicle and let it stand for 10 minutes while air bubbles work out of the system.
Repeat steps 11-14 until there are no air bubbles visible in the reservoir.
With the vehicle running, observe the fluid level in the reservoir. While looking in the reservoir turn off the vehicle, the fluid level should not change.
If the level stays consistent, check for leaks. If no leaks appear you are ready to safely test drive the vehicle.
This is from me:
As you wheel, especially if you have over sized tires and are still running a stock power steering set up, your power steering fluid will heat up and acquire bubbles. Both of these will add up to to having your steering be increasingly harder to steer as the day goes on.
There are quite a few things that you can do to help with this, from adding a cooler to going hydro and high volume pumps. The simplest is the addition of an after market cooler. A standard off the shelf transmission cooler works just fine. What this does is to both cool the fluid and add more fluid capacity, both very desirable to have.
Increasing the size of the reservoir, whether it is a remote (easier) or mounted to the pump, is also a rather inexpensive thing to do. The best remotes are available through a specialty shop like PSC or Howe, but Summit Racing and Speedway Motorsports both sell very good alternatives.
As to fluid, be very careful about what you use for the actual PS fluid. You have a lot of little seals that can get damaged if you use the wrong PS fluid, so double check. Toyota, for instance, suggests that you use only ATF and not regular PS fluid of any kind. Many of the other manufacturers have their own specifications and it is wise to follow them. That said, racing power steering fluid is very similar to racing brake fluid-it has a much higher boiling point, thus staying dense for a longer time, providing better responsiveness. Synthetic fluid has many of the same qualities as the racing PS fluid and you can find this at many of the regular auto parts stores, unlike the racing fluid.
At any rate, if your steering gets hard to steer, you will need to bleed the system. This takes about 15 minutes and is easier by far than bleeding brakes.
Hope that this helps out...
http://www.pscmotorsports.com/page.html?chapter=5&id=24
Before doing any modifications to your vehicle you should always disconnect the battery.
Check to make sure that all of the fittings in power steering system are tight.
Raise all steering tires off the ground.
Fill reservoir with power steering fluid. Never use Automatic Transmission Fluid. Leave power steering reservoir cap off.
Cycle the steering from lock to lock 3 - 4 times.
Check and refill reservoir if needed.
Repeat steps 5 and 6 until a consistent level is reached.
Reconnect battery. Replace power steering reservoir cap.
Start vehicle and let it run with out any steering input for 30 seconds.
Turn off the engine.
Check and refill reservoir if needed. Replace power steering reservoir cap.
Start vehicle again and cycle steering from lock to lock 10- 15 times.
Turn off vehicle and let it stand for 10 minutes while air bubbles work out of the system.
Repeat steps 11-14 until there are no air bubbles visible in the reservoir.
With the vehicle running, observe the fluid level in the reservoir. While looking in the reservoir turn off the vehicle, the fluid level should not change.
If the level stays consistent, check for leaks. If no leaks appear you are ready to safely test drive the vehicle.
This is from me:
As you wheel, especially if you have over sized tires and are still running a stock power steering set up, your power steering fluid will heat up and acquire bubbles. Both of these will add up to to having your steering be increasingly harder to steer as the day goes on.
There are quite a few things that you can do to help with this, from adding a cooler to going hydro and high volume pumps. The simplest is the addition of an after market cooler. A standard off the shelf transmission cooler works just fine. What this does is to both cool the fluid and add more fluid capacity, both very desirable to have.
Increasing the size of the reservoir, whether it is a remote (easier) or mounted to the pump, is also a rather inexpensive thing to do. The best remotes are available through a specialty shop like PSC or Howe, but Summit Racing and Speedway Motorsports both sell very good alternatives.
As to fluid, be very careful about what you use for the actual PS fluid. You have a lot of little seals that can get damaged if you use the wrong PS fluid, so double check. Toyota, for instance, suggests that you use only ATF and not regular PS fluid of any kind. Many of the other manufacturers have their own specifications and it is wise to follow them. That said, racing power steering fluid is very similar to racing brake fluid-it has a much higher boiling point, thus staying dense for a longer time, providing better responsiveness. Synthetic fluid has many of the same qualities as the racing PS fluid and you can find this at many of the regular auto parts stores, unlike the racing fluid.
At any rate, if your steering gets hard to steer, you will need to bleed the system. This takes about 15 minutes and is easier by far than bleeding brakes.
Hope that this helps out...