Hydro assist assistance, hehehe

[Chevman88]

Trying to diagnose some hydro assist issues I've been having. I've got a redhead box, stock pump, and psc ram. With the ram disconnected on one side, it responds to steering wheel input like I would expect, however, if I turn to the driver side and have the ram completely retracted it will then start slowly extending on it's own with no steering input. Normal?

The reason I'm digging into it is because I had developed death wobble and have for the most part got rid of it, but I still get quite a bit of bump steer if I hit a pothole just right.

Similar to what this thread is describing, but no solution posted: https://ck5.com/forums/threads/hydro-assist-steering-problem.313871/

 

[K85 Octane]

I looked at this and now you see someone viewed it. Now I feel bad I don’t have a good reply for you because your thread has views but no replies. Now I feel bad you’ll come back to this thread having seen a reply and you’ll find this.

 

[K85 Octane]

If it’s slowing extending and without enough force to turn the tires (jacked up off the ground) than it’s probably normal. I haven’t had my ram off and engine running. I also have a different box setup. The bumpsteer thing, umm, hmmmm....

 

[Chevman88]

If it’s slowing extending and without enough force to turn the tires (jacked up off the ground) than it’s probably normal. I haven’t had my ram off and engine running. I also have a different box setup. The bumpsteer thing, umm, hmmmm....

I think I'm going to pull the ram and disassemble it to check my seals and then bench bleed it. I need to relocate it from where it's currently located anyway.

 

[Chevman88]

Found something, gonna order a seal kit and hope that fixes it. Think I'm gonna do the pump mod while I've got the power steering system apart.

 

[6872xtc]

Are you referring to the split in the black nylon piece? That it the bearing for the piston, it is split for installation purposes. It is the part that rides on the inside of the tube bore. The thinner seal is the part designed to hold the oil from bypassing the piston.
I am fairly confident that your symptoms are normal with no load on the cylinder. It isn't hooked to a hydraulic circuit that has a typical "hold" position in the control, like a function on a loader does. It has been a couple of years since I bled air from assist cylinder with it unhooked, but I wouldn't have been concerned unless I detected a problem during the test drive and such. However I have some previous experience with some hydraulics, so it skews my outlook.

 

[jkroberts]

My suggestion is to loop the lines going to the ram to bypass it completely and then drive it and see how it does.

 

[skunked]

I am fairly confident that your symptoms are normal with no load on the cylinder.

X2

 

[Chevman88]

This is good to know. Right now I have the gearbox capped and the ram disassembled on my workbench. I'll give it a thorough cleaning, reassemble, and bench bleed it then take my rig on a drive with no ram installed and see how she do. The Utah guys gave me a list of other things to check as well for the bump steer and death wobble I've been experiencing.

 

[skunked]

You'll always have some bump steer with crossover on these rigs.