Saturday, July 15, 2006
Power steering revisited
Due to the custom pressure hose breaking at the pump fitting (due to a hose defect), I needed to re-work the power steering system a bit. The complicated pressure hose routing described earlier was eliminated in favor of a much simpler design. Instead of running to a hardline connected to the steering sector, the hose now runs directly from the pump to the sector.
The connection at the pump is a stock Trooper part. This one came with my diesel engine, but it is identical to the fitting on the 4-cyl. gas engine pressure hose (except for the pin on the side of the diesel connector - this is not necessary and I considered cutting it off). The hydraulic shop cut the hardline off the fitting and brazed on a standard threaded flare connector. This creates an adaptor fitting which can be connected to the rubber pressure hose itself.
The steering sector fitting is another stock Isuzu part, this one having been cut off the old power steering return line, which ran from the reservior to the steering sector and threaded right in. The pressure and return ports are the same thread size, so the fitting was cut off from the old hose and again brazed to a standard fitting, creating an adaptor fitting at the other end.
The hose itself is a rubber pressure hose with identical fittings on each end which allow the two Isuzu adaptors to be threaded on. This way, if the hose ever fails or deteriorates, I can just have a new center section made and re-use the fittings.
The upper right photo shows (most of) the new hose. The upper left photo shows it installed, with another short section of hose added on at the sector end to account for my measuring mistake. Next time, I will be more careful and only need to buy one section of hose!
posted by acy76, 4:52 PM
