Power Steering Possibility?

[rustystud]

Man, When I drove the dodge to work this morning, the steering felt super stiff in comparison to the deuce. Thought something was wrong with it for a sec. Plus, there wasn't even a single drip on the concrete under the truck this morning either. That was pleasing. I need to get the alignment set more exactly to the original width and then do the new little cooling radiator and I'll start driving it a lot more. Anyone have a distance between the tie rod ends they like best?

Rusty, You're gonna have to be more specific on beefing up the steering gear. I don't see why. It has maybe a couple ounces of load on it anymore. The servo valve is just slipped into pipe couplers with band clamps. Everything will slide apart when loosened. I'd me more than happy to bounce ideas off ya if you want.

I considered doing a firewall mount for the valve, but idk, I guess that was one of the lazy parts where I cut a corner. That valve is meant to be clamped into a bore, so I basically followed that convention.

Here's the basic shape of that base plate I made. I forgot to annotate the distance from the top of the circle to the edge. That's 7"

I cannot find the pictures I posted here, but what I had done was replace the sector shaft bushing with a roller bearing. This allows you to carry a much heavier load which is needed especially if your going to be using taller tires. You would only need this if your hydraulics cut out for whatever reason.

 

[7bdiver]

Added a 6 pass cooler and drove the piss out of it around every turn on my hill. Only got warm.

I didn't really want to do the plastic ties that go through the fins, but it actually turned out quite well. I lightly painted the front of it. Can't even see it. Project done.

 

[rustystud]

Added a 6 pass cooler and drove the piss out of it around every turn on my hill. Only got warm.

I didn't really want to do the plastic ties that go through the fins, but it actually turned out quite well. I lightly painted the front of it. Can't even see it. Project done.

Good job !

 

[davidb56]

If you turn the steering wheel with the engine off, does it feel the same as before adding the hydraulics? Or do you feel extra resistance from the unpowered steering ram?

is this a stupid question, or nobody knows? If It cannot be steered without pump running, as in the ram adding resistance, then I cant do this mod where I live.

 

[7bdiver]

I haven't really put it to the test yet. Its the same valve thats in a normal ps unit, just divorced. I'll confirm it works tomorrow.

 

[7bdiver]

With the engine off and just sitting there, the steering wheel was hard as balls to turn, but it did move the wheels. Not sure what it'll be like with it rolling.

I'll have to go somewhere its safe to kill the engine and do that. My place is on a pretty steep hill.

I did the same thing with my dodge pickup. Felt the same. I didn't know power steering was that f'ing stiff with the engine off.

Def stiffer than if it were just stock steering.

 

[rustystud]

With the engine off and just sitting there, the steering wheel was hard as balls to turn, but it did move the wheels. Not sure what it'll be like with it rolling.

I'll have to go somewhere its safe to kill the engine and do that. My place is on a pretty steep hill.

I did the same thing with my dodge pickup. Felt the same. I didn't know power steering was that f'ing stiff with the engine off.

Def stiffer than if it were just stock steering.

That was why I modified the steering gear. The extra stress put on it in a "no hydraulics" situation is tremendous. Of course that shouldn't happen often (hopefully !) , but if it ever did I didn't want the steering gear to break.

 

[7bdiver]

I'll look into doing that Rusty. I promised my wife I'd work on our camping trailer, so I'll get to it when I can. Think you might be able to dig up the info on that bearing you used? I didn't see it in your old posts, but that may be due to my search terms.

 

[oboyjohn]

North of the border here in Canada, our deuces came with power steering from the factory. They used a Ross HFB-52022 steering box with a ratio of 20.4 to 1. The pump was an Eaton Corp model 16352-1 pushing 2.2 gallons per minute at 900 RPM. The pump was belt driven off the harmonic dampener and had a remote reservoir on the drivers side of the engine. Sadly our deuces have all been retired.

 

[rustystud]

I'll look into doing that Rusty. I promised my wife I'd work on our camping trailer, so I'll get to it when I can. Think you might be able to dig up the info on that bearing you used? I didn't see it in your old posts, but that may be due to my search terms.

I forgot to mention, there is two different housings for the steering gear. One has a tendency to crack. I posted pictures showing the differences between the two. You cannot depend on the age of your truck either for which one you get. I've found the bad ones on later years and the good ones on early years, and vice-versus. Their pretty much all mixed up. Try and find my posts.

 

[gringeltaube]

I posted pictures showing the differences between the two.

deuce steering gear

I've been on a steering gear modification project for awhile now. So I collected a bunch of steering gears. A few things I found out might interest the community here. One; there are two models of steering gears. Picture one shows them side by side. The one with the tall mounting pad is the...

www.steelsoldiers.com

 

[rustystud]

deuce steering gear

I've been on a steering gear modification project for awhile now. So I collected a bunch of steering gears. A few things I found out might interest the community here. One; there are two models of steering gears. Picture one shows them side by side. The one with the tall mounting pad is the...

www.steelsoldiers.com

Thanks Gerhard ! I tried for quite a while to find that post.
You asked in that post about "real power steering" . I had referred to my future power steering project in that post which "7bdiver" has now done. I got sidetracked with all the other projects here, number one being my new shop. The second big project is adding an Allison to the Deuce. Spent a ton of money on modified NP205 parts. Getting back to the steering project, using the original steering gear in a "Power Steering system" without "upgrading" it can lead to problems down the road. That was why I was spending so much time fixing the steering gear problems back then.

 

[Ibexe666]

Here's after I put the lines and reservoir on there. The little rediator was mounted under the heater box against fender vents where the hoses. More on that later.

Taking the grill off and pulling the radiator only took an hour, including draining it. I really didnt want to pull the rad, but it was actually much easier than the fretting leading up to it. No way you're gonna cut the radiator shroud to fit the pump in there without pulling it.

Any specs on the servo?

 

[7bdiver]

Its a Sweet med (which is their regular) with .235 torsion spec. Paid 150 for it on ebay. The input spline is 3/4-48, output is 13/16-36. Its an older model, but was new.

The new ones are both 3/4 inch splines. Other than that, they're identical.

 

[m-35tom]

Any specs on the servo?

Take the fender off, box installation and pump installation then is pretty easy.

 

[Lead Farmer 5.56]

On my M35a2 I installed a 5 ton power steering pump and saginaw gear.

loved the results.

Could you possibly tell me what year and model your Saginaw steering gear came out of and also the year and model of the 5 ton you got the pump from? I like your setup and it seems to turn amazingly well, per your Youtube.

 

[7bdiver]

Update to the power steering I did.

I had been experiencing some steering shake when turning the wheels while stopped or crawling slow. Its quite a diagnostics debacle that a lot of racers that use these sweet steering servos struggle with.

After making sure all my steering gear had no slop in it, (found the drag link to be sloppy) it still shook pretty bad. Its not a good thing, and you can break stuff for sure.

So what was wrong, is that it had too light of a torsion bar. When I turned the sterring wheel, the valve would want to go full bore, running the ram faster than you turned the wheel. That makes it surge, stop, and surge. Mind you, this is in small increments, nothing crazy, and it never shook over 2mph. Still, I need this thing to be 100% up against big rocks.

I bought another used steering servo off ebay for 85 bucks, with a .275 torsion bar in it. Solved the problem completely! It really stiffened the steering up too. Used to be able to steer with two fingers, now its back to the original feel, which is what I wanted.

 

[rustystud]

Update to the power steering I did.

I had been experiencing some steering shake when turning the wheels while stopped or crawling slow. Its quite a diagnostics debacle that a lot of racers that use these sweet steering servos struggle with.

After making sure all my steering gear had no slop in it, (found the drag link to be sloppy) it still shook pretty bad. Its not a good thing, and you can break stuff for sure.

So what was wrong, is that it had too light of a torsion bar. When I turned the sterring wheel, the valve would want to go full bore, running the ram faster than you turned the wheel. That makes it surge, stop, and surge. Mind you, this is in small increments, nothing crazy, and it never shook over 2mph. Still, I need this thing to be 100% up against big rocks.

I bought another used steering servo off ebay for 85 bucks, with a .275 torsion bar in it. Solved the problem completely! It really stiffened the steering up too. Used to be able to steer with two fingers, now its back to the original feel, which is what I wanted.

Thats good to know Todd. Thanks !

 

[patracy]

Ok, I finished the system tonight. Where to start...

I wanted to do something different. While a normal power steering box is the most tidy, I still wanted a big-ol ram down there steering the wheels without loading up the sector shaft.

What I've done, is make it "steering assist" with the use of a servo valve put in-line with the existing steering column. Now I have the power of full hydraulic while retaining the original steering box.

While I lost the original horn, I did go ahead and put on a quick detach 18" steering wheel. This alone was damn near worth the project. No more working in the firewall underneath that F'ing 20" wheel!

I fished the wire out and cut that steering column in half with a hacksaw. The outer shaft isn't heavy, but the inside one is 1" schedule 40. Not hardenned, and very easy to cut/weld. I welded three spline adapters to it for the valve and the quick detach hub.

@7bdiver What spline adapters did you use/where did you get them?

 

[7bdiver]

I bought the weld on spline adapters on ebay. They're the same ones they sell on the distributor sites. They have their stuff on ebay too.

One was 13/16-36 spline, the other 3/4-48 (late model).
The new models are 3/4 on both ends. Otherwise, Im pretty sure they're the same. It doesn't look like the seal rebuild kit changed between the two either.