Installed the new ram this weekend. Bench bled it first since I've had a lot of trouble in the past bleeding this set up with the hydroboost. Bleeding the ram not plumbed in has worked the best.
Hooked it up to a PSC box. For those that need to know in the future, the rear most port has pressure for right turn, forward most for left.
After following typical bleeding procedure, the last thing I do for bleeding is to run the motor and crack the fittings on the ram to let any trapped air out. In the past there has been some but not this time. I'm thinking bench bleeding helped.
Tried to improve my steering and bump stop situation.
Pulled the engine crossmember to see if I could make more room. The only way I can make a big difference would be to rebuild it completely but I don't want to go to that trouble if I'm going to do an LS swap in the nearish future.
I made a couple of cuts and ground out some clearance.
Arrow indicates where ram hit:
Cut that out and ground the vertical.
Welded a little strap on the top side to replace at least some of the structure I cut out.
Gained an 1"of clearance
Now the fittings ate the limiting factor.
And I notice the tie rod to crossmember is about the same as the fittings with maybe an extra 1/4".
Bought some SUPER beefy spring plates from Offroad Design. 5/8" thick make the old ones look weak. Did this to get a flat surface to start with.
Added a 3" square tube riser.
Used the "diamond" orientation for clearance to the ubolts.
Made a top plate that sits on the riser. Has tabs to use a bolt to hold it in place and allow it to be removable to get access to the ubolt nuts.
Now I have a nice bump stop platform.
Still need to modify my bump stop brackets for the height of the riser.
