Hydro assist in Brody's heap

April 10th, 2009

In a couple of weeks, I am going to be installing a PSC hydro assist kit into my heap to help compensate for the big tires I am currently running.

Actually, I should say that I will be helping Scotty at Addicted Off Road with the install as this is a long awaited B-Day present and I am under orders from LaDawn that part of the present was that I wouldn't be doing the work. We compromised....

Anyway, the kit consists of the following parts: a high volume PS pump and remote reservoir, hoses and fittings, a rebored (for the hydraulic fittings) standard Toyota IFS power steering box that has been rebuilt, and a single throw hydraulic ram for the steering. All the parts are coming from PSC, as this is one of the best and most trouble free set ups out there.

West Texas Off Road is going to be doing the boring of the IFS box as well as the rebuild. I am planning on mounting the new PS pump and reservoir, then I will be labor when Scotty does the install of the actual ram assist.

Since this isn't a 'watch and learn', I will take pictures and post them as the install takes place, as well as document any items that are critical to the install that may cause problems.

Here are pictures of the items that I am purchasing from PSC, a completed install and a link showing step by step pictures of a typical installation:

http://www.rockfrogs.org/phpBB2/view...r=asc&start=15

April 10th, 2009

Wow Pete you are moving right onlong on getting this mod going.

April 10th, 2009

Since this was last July's B-Day present, I wouldn't say that! Still, it is going to be nice to finally get it done. Those poor little under psi'd Toyota PS pumps aren't really designed to turn big aired down tires. There are a couple of mods that you can do, but they tend to burn the pump up fast..done them...now I am running the life time warranty Car Quest version.

The pumps are one of the reasons that I only air down a little bit..if I get down down below 18 lbs, my box/fluid gets so hot and full of air that I got to manual mode...and it takes both hands with all I have to turn the wheel an inch...Last trail we ran where this happened, by the time we got down, I felt like I had been doing one of those weird Jack LaLane 'use everything you have and push on both sides of the door frame for an hour' exercises...

Getting the 84 for a DD work truck is a big help in finalizing my rig..I no longer have to finish a project in a day or weekend in order to drive it to work on Monday...oh...wait...I don't have a "drive to work Monday" job at the moment.....

April 10th, 2009

Brody previously posted:

April 10th, 2009

I look forward to seeing the posts as I have been considering the same thing for my rig. I actually had it planned for a winter mod (along with a bunch of other things), but lack of work led to lack of $$, which led to no mods for me this winter

April 10th, 2009

I decided to go with the PSC as the many folks that race and many of the people I know that have buggies and race have beat the absolute crap out of these units with no problems...even after years of use and abuse. The whole set up, minus the PS box boring for the hydro, is so far at the $650 figure. West Texas Off Road is going to do the boring and tapping of the box as it is one of the few outfits that will not only bore and tap the box, but do a complete rebuild (getting rid of any metal particles) and guarantee their work.

Trail Gear, Redneck Ram and Howe also make good units..Howe's is supposed to be the absolute best of the best, but you end up paying easily twice as much..and you are still dealing with some limitations on the stock Toyota PS box itself.

Anyway, a full write up with pictures will follow, along with a how it all works follow up. I talked to Ken at GeckoCycles and he said that just the addition of the PSC PS pump alone made it so that on the road the wheel turns with the passage of air from his hands over the wheel...I think that I am going to really love this set up...and LaDawn, too...

If you do decide to go with this, we probably need to see if the standard Toyota IFS box is what you are currently using on your rig. If it is, I do have an extra box that we can put on yours while it gets bored and tapped if that helps out any..I am sending the extra one out and will again have an extra one as soon as Scotty and I do the hydro.

Has work started picking up there yet? I am still slow here...

April 11th, 2009

Brody previously posted:

**Funrover** · April 14th, 2009

Because you weren't built enough...

April 14th, 2009

Funrover previously posted:

April 15th, 2009

That is a good price. I have $810 in my setup and I have a few extra parts too being I bought some used stuff and have duplicates of some things but that doesn't amount to more than $100 of extra stuff.

Let me know if you need some TIG work done.

April 15th, 2009

Thank you for the offer! I will do that.

I expect to get the PSC pump, hoses, reservoir, mount, ram etc tomorrow or Friday. PSC is also doing the bore, tap and rebuild of my extra box and that should be here early next week. I am going to mount and plumb the new pump and reservoir, then take the rest of the mess up to Scotty at Addicted to help with the install...part of the hydro gift..I don't do the install, but I did get cleared to help....

I can't wait!! This is been on the board for almost a year and I have been talking about it longer than that. Every time I step up in tire size it's been "Hydro is next..."

April 29th, 2009

I started on the install of the hydro assist today. The remote reservoir had to be located and a bracket made for it, the non drilled steering box had to come off and the new one put on, the old power steering pump had to come off and the new pump put on and all the hose run and the system bled.

I had to do two tries to get the right shaped bracket for the reservoir so that it was off set from the air intake. I also wanted to be able to weld part of the bracket to the existing shock tower and to incorporate the shock bolt into the set up.

Next was the pump and pulley. This is a Chevy style pump with a much higher flow rate and volume. It also has a Chevy style push on pulley that is a much smaller underdrive pulley, giving increased fluid at low rpms. The first pulley installer/remover set I got from the auto store was butchered too much to use. I took this back and the other three sets they had were all missing critical parts...I finally got this sorted out at another store and put the pulley on...only to take it right back off as the bolts that I was so used to being able to reach through the older, bigger pulley wouldn't fit anymore. I ended up having to mount the pump with all the bolts, then install the pulley while it was mounted. There was just barely enough room for this...I used a straight edge across the pulleys to get a straight line on the belt...a piece of 1" flat steel work really well. Due to the undersized pulley I also needed to get a belt that a little less than an inch smaller than the stock one.

Next was the steering box. After the usual banging with a hammer and a large pickle fork (I could've used a puller here, but I had purposefully hosed the last install down with anti sieze and didn't tighten it to the 200 lbs needed) , I got the pitman arm off, located the half way point on the steering and reattached everything.

Attachment of the hoses was next. PSC didn't give me quite enough 300psi line to run for the low pressure line, so I had to source some from a local hydraulic place. Other than that, everything else went into place fine.

I bled the system and the truck now turns like it has a set of skinny little 28" tires on it...and this without the hydro...In fact, it turns better than the Jeep Grand Cherokee we have which turns really well. I actually have to keep a very light touch on the wheel..

I have only a couple of issues to deal with next: Because the steering box was moved pretty far forward (because the axle is moved 2" to the front), where the lowermost hydraulic fitting is, I will have to remove some of the body panel to get room. The second issue is because I am not running a 3.0 or the 22RE and instead am running a 3.4L with a reverse mounted T100 oil pan, I cannot mount the hydro assist cylinder to the back side of the tie rod. It will crater the oil pan...

I will need to fab some additional mounting points and possibly some armor in order to mount it to the front side...Niether of these is a big deal, just another reminder that ANY KIND of custom work on a modified rig always takes longer...

Here are the sources I used for reference in addition to what I sourced from the PSC site:

http://www.pscmotorsports.com/tech/i...pump-route.pdf

http://www.rockcrawler.com/techrepor...ydro/index.asp

http://www.rockfrogs.org/phpBB2/view...r=asc&start=15

http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/te.../photo_14.html

And here are the pictures so far:

April 29th, 2009

And yes..there wasn't very much wiggle room. My hands look I have been teasing starving rats....Oh, yeah...The zip tie looking deals are what I had the power steering cooler mounted with. I had to cut off the originals to run the heavier hosing and knew that I couldn't find the nice ones it came with to remount it. What I did was to cut off the remaining round plastic from both ends and drill it out just enough to get a regular zip tie through ti, but not big enough for the head. I used the same foam and plastic pieces, slid the zip tie through the back, then through the cooler, through the outer piece of plastic and then used another zip tie to lock it into place. Worked pretty well for a quicky fix...

**Chris** · April 29th, 2009

Brody previously posted:

April 29th, 2009

Getting closer, that's for sure! I am not supposed to install the hydraulic cylinder, but I might just do that anyway. I have basically gotten everything down to four brackets and a re bleed...And I am not working...and idle hands and an idle mind....

April 30th, 2009

Wow Pete you made pretty good progress since I was by on Tuesday, I need some of your energy.

**Funrover** · April 30th, 2009

AWESOME, I am looking forward to this being done....

April 30th, 2009

SWEET!!!!

May 2nd, 2009

Hydro Assist Part 2

The first item that needed to be addressed was installing a new tie rod. Awhile back I had broken one of the tie rod ends and being unable to find another tie rod in town, picked up a drag link, cut and sleeved it and it has been on there ever since. I have had the new tie rod and ends for a bit, waiting for this.

I started by removing the old tie rods using a pickle fork and a soft blow hammer. I then cleaned out the holes and coated them liberally with ant-seize compound. Next I used a couple of squares and matched the length of the tie rods. The new rod was then installed.

Next I decided to work on the clearance issue for the fitting at the very end of my steering box. If this had been a customer’s rig, I would have removed the box to have better access, but since it was mine, I decided that having a somewhat butchered hole where no one was going to see it wasn’t going to bother me.

I used a pry bar, a large hammer, and a 3 foot length of 1” pipe to gently(HEHE) push the body panel back the ¾” I needed for the fitting and hose. While doing this, I also noticed that where I had run the cables for my from plug in and winch had gotten pinched by the body. This was caused by the body bushings slowly wearing down and the body settling. I then had to re route these wires out of the way.

May 2nd, 2009

Finally I can get started on the actual hydro cylinder install. Due to the fact that I had moved my front axle 2” forward and that I was running a 3.4L conversion with the 100 reversed oil pan, I couldn’t install the clinder on the rear of the tie rod. It would have hit the oil pan in full compression. So I had to figure out where it was going to ride in the front.

The first picture of this shows a test to find the height. I found that using a piece of 2x2x3/16 stock on top of the already existing differential armor gave me the right height. Next I measured the half way points on the rod ends as well as the half way point on the cylinder shaft itself. I then installed the rod ends with the mounts, centered the wheels and centered the cylinder.

Next in line was getting the front end aligned. I took a carpenter’s square and measured the same distance up on both front wheels, marking this in the same spot on each tire, front and back. I then measured this distance, looking to achieve a 3/16-1/4” narrower measurement in the front. This is your toe in.

Since I had just recently done this and since I matched the tie rod length, my measurement was fine and I didn’t have to do any adjustment. This would have been done by loosening the lock nuts at each end and turning the tie rod one direction or another to achieve the ¼ or so toe in. If you 4wheel with a straight axle vehicle, you really need to learn how to do this very simple alignment procedure. It will save you big $$ .

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