Hydro assist install update, pump mods.

[Zeus33rd]

Figured it was about time for a new post about this. I'll copy and paste the important stuff from the other thread.

Well, I'm about 90% done with mounting the ram/plumbing etc. Still have to pretty up and finish grind the mounting tabs and paint etc. On to the pictures-

First thing on order was taking the ram apart and chucking it in the lathe to cut the weld...

Remove the end and weld back on 90* apart-

Mount Ram and plumb lines-

And this is my temporary fluid resivoir extender thingy-

The mounting tabs are made from 3/8x2" flat bar...Jesse's old shackles. If I had had some 1/4" material, I would have used that. The 3/8 material looks alittle goofy. Everything works fine...except I have to be at like 2000rpms to get any assist out of the stock pump. At 2k rpms, I can now turn lock to lock on concrete, where I couldn't before. Below 2k theres nothing. I think the flow/pressure mods are pretty much required with a stock pump. I have a brand new spare that I'm gonna mod and install tommorrow. The one I have on there now, is less than a year old, but has some serious hard abuse on it. If that doesn't work, I guess it's time to start researching aftermarket pumps.

More pictures tommorrow or Friday.

Today I took the parts out of my new pump, modded them, and stuck them into the pump on the truck. HUUUGE difference. It works exactly how I hoped it would work. Lock to lock with my pinky, on pavement, at about 900rpm, 6psi in the 42's. Too cool!

Pictures-

Remove the big fitting from the back of the pump, takes a 1" wrench-

Fitting-

From right to left, these are the parts inside the pump. 1" fitting on the right-

First thing I did was drill out the hole in the large fitting to 5/32"-

Next I took the flow piston apart. Requires a 7/16" wrench/socket. These are the parts inside the flow piston. I removed the shim, second from the right, and just barely took a bit off the the small end of the limiting stud (4th from the right) with a file. Re-assemble-

Then I stretched out the large spring from inside the pump housing till it was at about 2 1/2"-

Just doin those few small mods made all the difference. Before, at anything less than 2k rpms, I had nothing. Now it's lock to lock standing still with my pinky. I got most of the info from the West Texas Off-Road website-

http://westtexasoffroad.homestead.com/powersteering.html

One other thing I might try, thats not listed on the WTO site, is this mod to the main fitting-

Supposed to help flow from idle to low RPM's. That info I found in BOWTIE's photo gallery-

http://www.texasoffroad.net/galleries/members/albun67?page=1

Might help bring the assist down to idle rather than the 900rpm's it seems to really kick in at now.

All in all I think I had about two hours from start finish on the pump mods. Hardest part was getting the fitting off the pump in the truck- draglink and engine x-member made it hard to get wrenchs in there. Otherwise it's a pretty simple project.

 

[mofugly13]

Whooo-Hoooo! I love machine tols, and pic's of them in action. Must be a fetish. Nice job Jethro! I''ll be doing this same mod in the next few months, yer pics and posts will surely help.

 

[unclematty]

Good job I wanted to hear from someone who actually had done it, I've had that info from WTO for about a year now, but have been skeptical of it, Thanks for playing guinea pig!

 

[BozoWise]

And I thought I was fancy cutting my weld with a chop saw Saw all the modded pieces come out the pressure line fitting when you remove it with a 1" therefore no need to remove the pump? In hindsight.... Would it be easier jsut to remove the pump and do the mods on the bench?

 

[Zeus33rd]

And I thought I was fancy cutting my weld with a chop saw Saw all the modded pieces come out the pressure line fitting when you remove it with a 1" therefore no need to remove the pump? In hindsight.... Would it be easier jsut to remove the pump and do the mods on the bench?

No need to remove the pump. It's easy enough to get the fitting out, that it's not worth removing the pump and going through the hassle. My engine x-member got in the way cause its not in the stock location. Woulda been way simple if it had been in the stock location. Just leave the pump in the truck.

 

[southernspeed]

Couple of Q's KJ. I haven't seen a box with take offs in those positions before. I'm just about to do mine and was going to use a different location. Have you got a drawing of where you drilled and tapped or some better photos?
Also, you say you had no assist below 2000rpm, what dia ram are you using?
I wasn't going to mod my pump but if you're using a 1 3/4" ram I guess I'll have to.
Thanks buddy. (any plans for those 10 and 12blt diff covers yet???)

 

[jagermiester]

Can you do this mod even if ypou dont have hydraulic assist? Will it hurt anything? I have to put on a new pump but wont be doing hydrassist until about may when I throw in my 60. So I figured I go ahead and do the mod while I will have the new pump out. Will it hmake a difference?

 

[UseYourBlinker]

Awesome. Well I will for sure get the same set up.

 

[Zeus33rd]

Couple of Q's KJ. I haven't seen a box with take offs in those positions before. I'm just about to do mine and was going to use a different location. Have you got a drawing of where you drilled and tapped or some better photos?
Also, you say you had no assist below 2000rpm, what dia ram are you using?
I wasn't going to mod my pump but if you're using a 1 3/4" ram I guess I'll have to.
Thanks buddy. (any plans for those 10 and 12blt diff covers yet???)

You can take a look at this thread for better pictures of where I ported my box-
http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159921

Also BOWTIE's picture album-
http://www.texasoffroad.net/galleries/members/albun67

The lower of the two holes pretty much needs to be where it is. There's a fluid passage right there that you want to aim for. If you look at the box head on from the end with the rag joint, you can see the cap in the end of the casting. The upper one can be pretty much anywhere within 1" below the casting line to as far above it as is practicle for putting a fitting. As long as you don't deviate from front to back, it can pretty much be anywhere on the circumfrence of the pump. I mounted mine up higher for tire clearance, if I had left it down below the casting line, the tire would have ripped it off.

My ram is a 1.5 bore, 8" stroke, 1" diameter rod. I think the stock, un-modded pump just wasn't flowing enough at lower rpms to work. Another thing that might have contributed...On the end of the flow piston, theres a little metal screen that kinda keeps crap out. When I pulled the piston out of the pump that was on the truck, to swap with the new modded one, that screen on the un-modded one had a good amount of crud on it. That was prolly impeding flow somewhat. After swapping in the modded parts, it work perfectly. I couldn't believe the difference just those small mods made. Interesting side note- the piston in the above pictures only had one shim it, the one I pulled from the pump on the truck has two. I'm going to mod the spare parts I have, stick them back into the other pump, so I'll have a brand new, modded spare pump.

Can you do this mod even if ypou dont have hydraulic assist? Will it hurt anything? I have to put on a new pump but wont be doing hydrassist until about may when I throw in my 60. So I figured I go ahead and do the mod while I will have the new pump out. Will it hmake a difference?

Yes, you can do the mod without having assist. This is a quote from the WTO website- http://westtexasoffroad.homestead.com/powersteering.html

"First off, some pumps don't have any shims. Some have one or two. If it does have a shim remove it and try that. I don't recommend doing anymore than that if you are going to run hydro assist but if you are just trying to get more power out of a stock system and that does not give you enough then you can place a small washer in the bottom of the piston housing beneth the spring. A #4 machine washer fits perfect but can be a little too thick. A 3mm washer also works and is slightly thiner. Remember little steps. These mods increase the blowby pressure.
You will also need to grind off some of the limiting stud so that It will still have room to travel. This is so that it doesn't block off all the pressure."

 

[85mudblazin]

Just modded my pump. Mine didnt have a shim so that made it easier. Just drilled out the hole and stretched the spring. Truck isnt running yet so I cant say if it helped yet.

 

[T r a i l r i g]

im glad you confirmed that these mods work, i think you are the first


also let us know how much better it performs offroad, unless i beat ya to it

 

[Zeus33rd]

Just modded my pump. Mine didnt have a shim so that made it easier. Just drilled out the hole and stretched the spring. Truck isnt running yet so I cant say if it helped yet.

If your piston didn't have a shim, you might want to try adding a 3mm washer under the spring, inside the piston housing. You've increaed your flow by drilling the fitting, but done nothing for pressure yet. Pressure is regulated by the parts in that piston.

From WTO website-

First off, some pumps don't have any shims. Some have one or two. If it does have a shim remove it and try that. I don't recommend doing anymore than that if you are going to run hydro assist but if you are just trying to get more power out of a stock system and that does not give you enough then you can place a small washer in the bottom of the piston housing beneth the spring. A #4 machine washer fits perfect but can be a little too thick. A 3mm washer also works and is slightly thiner. Remember little steps. These mods increase the blowby pressure.
You will also need to grind off some of the limiting stud so that It will still have room to travel. This is so that it doesn't block off all the pressure.

im glad you confirmed that these mods work, i think you are the first


also let us know how much better it performs offroad, unless i beat ya to it

You'll prolly beat me to it, it's gonna be a week or two till I can get out and test it. Gotta do itsoon though...goin to the Hammers first weekend in Febuary.

 

[az-k5]

I am still leary of the lifespan of a modded pump. I know Jason had a horrible time with the crew cab.

 

[Zeus33rd]

I am still leary of the lifespan of a modded pump. I know Jason had a horrible time with the crew cab.

I think about that too...If I ever have a roblem with it, I have the spare. If I have a need to use the spare, I'll prolly just pic up one of those KRC pumps. Till then I'm gonna run the piss out of this one.

 

[southernspeed]

Thanks KJ, good info!
Mark.

 

[Zeus33rd]

Thanks KJ, good info!
Mark.

 

[blazd88]

Not to hijack but got my ram mounted and tested the hydro assist on a run this weekend and its amazing. Yes I was foot braking the whole time to keep the RPMs up. Ran into some leaks but thats small stuff compared to the gain of moving the entire truck on its side by just turning the wheel. Pump mod woll be done this week and tested on another run nest weekend.

 

[mikey_d05]

I modded mine while I had the truck here last week. The power of it is truly amazing but the speed left something to be desired last time I was out, hopefully these tweaks will do it.

No testing for a while though, all I have for meats are shop rollers.

 

[sandawgk5]

Here is a blatant hijack. Are any of you ram assist guys running hydroboost with only one PS pump?

End Hijack

Ira

 

[wayne]

I have a modded pump and have been running it for a little while. No problems yet and it has a few thousand miles on it. The only thing I have not done is extend the neck but that will get done when I do the engine swap soon. Another thing I am going to try is the notch on the fitting. When my rpms get really low (500 rpms) the ram does not want to work so that might help it. I'll post up some pics of my set up later.