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Hydro assist Slow in the rocks.

twoslo4five0

twoslo4five0

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I'm running a PSC box, 1.75 (I think) cylinder PSC ram and a stock pump (unmodded)

I'm fairly certain that this stock pump needs to go. I refuse to pay 300 bucks for a power steering pump with the "hopes" that it may improve my steering. At 300 bucks im almost halfway to full hydro. Im talking about a PSC or KRC pump.

Now, has anyone on here ever installed or toyed with the idea of installing a Saginaw 143 pump? The pump is beast and half the price of a fancy bling pump.
 
why don't you do the pump mod found on westtexasoffroad.com?
 
It's freakin easy. I did mine in about 15 min, and that included removing the pump and reinstalling it
 
been there done that, it barley does anything in the grand scheme of things. I'm really looking to increase flow and hoping that will solve my issues without having to go full hydro. My biggest fear is that my current ram is to small. If I go to a larger ram it will be even slower so a larger pump will be needed, at that point I might as well go full hydro. big tires, welded front end and any hardy surface will definitely test out your steering systems (and muscles)
 
Remember all this

For anyone interested in pump mods here is some basics for understanding hydraulics. First very important thing to note is that pumps pump flow not pressure. raising a pumps bypass pressure only increases the maximum amount of resistance in the system to high and your pump breaks. Second is that if you have to match flow for your system to much without a bypass and you will have failure even with a bypass you generate unnecessary heat. Drilling out the return line or increasing the return of a pump reduces the chance of a pump caviatating (small bubbles are released and dissolved in whatever you are pumping causing damage) the flow control can be modified to provide more flow instead of recirculating it to reservoir.
Flow at idle can only be changed by having a larger displacement pump or changing pulley ratio for a faster pump rpm at idle. Most powersteering pumps are vane types and and reach flow contol at approx 2000 engine rpm.
Hope this helps understanding hydraulics also milwright manuals and hydraulics manuals can provide with much information on troubleshooting hyraulics.

Not knowing what you are trying to accomplish when increasing flow rates and pressure will cause ultimatly needless and expensive repairs. pumps pump fluid at a rate regardless of obstructions in a system if the only place you have issues with a system for example is at idle then modifying the flow control will not increase that. positive displacement vane pumps which the large majority of power steering pumps are put out a volume of ci/rev more revs more gpm up to the pumps max rpm. so if you make a modification to increase the output of a flow control valve from 3 to 5gpm for example as well as increase the bypass pressure in a system that is designed for 3 gpm math tells you 2 gpm will have to go somewhere resulting in excesive heat generation at a minimum or worst case blowing hydraulic lines, split cylinders or a destroyed pump. a better option may be overdriving the pump to get a desireable flow rate at idle considering your enge rpm range or if you lack power in the system increase bypass pressure as long as you do not exceed the limits of your hoses pump etc. hydraulics have to be matched for your flow rates if you are trying to build a system you need too know the volume of your pump the volume of your cylinders the output of a charlyn valve in ci/rev if you want to predict turns lock to lock. giving someone a example to randomly modify items with out understanding the consequenses is irresponsible.
 
That's all good info, but all I know is that I did my hydro assist without doing a pump mod. And it was sluggish. Then decided to do the pump mod, and it was smooth as butter. And I've been running it like that for 7 or so months with no problem. And there have been a lot of dudes in years past that have run modded pumps without any problems whatsoever.

Now, I may have got lucky in picking a good size ram that works well with the system, but I don't think I'm that lucky
 
Let me say this, ive had a few rigs with hydro assist. Modded pumps, un modded pumps, big cylinders, small cylinders. They all act the same. Everyone I wheel with has big tires and most have hydro assist. I still see people struggle to steer. Its more of an issue with not enough flow at low rpms. Most pumps like 1200 rpms or so. I can rev mine up and its fine but I don't want to do that and you cant always do that.

Basically Im looking for the most flow possible in a stock pump (if it isn't possible I will buy a bling pump) at Low rpms. 800 rpms would be ideal.
 
that I have been considering but havnt had much success finding a smaller pulley, I'm also no wizard on pullies so im not real sure what im looking for....
 
Cut the center out of a power steering pulley, and weld it into one from another accessory?

Martin
 
The smaller pulley runs the pump faster, but keep in mind that the P-pumps that most everything GM uses don't survive well when they're spun really fast.
 
I bought a PSC high flow pump with a 1.75x8 ram when I did hydro assist on my blazer. While I noticed an improvement, I was never overly impressed with it. If the engine was at idle, it would become hard to turn the wheel at a fast pace.
 
stan1688 said:
I bought a PSC high flow pump with a 1.75x8 ram when I did hydro assist on my blazer. While I noticed an improvement, I was never overly impressed with it. If the engine was at idle, it would become hard to turn the wheel at a fast pace.
Click to expand...
This is why I'm looking at KRC or a stock replacement that works at a lower RPM or a smaller pulley. Ive contacted KRC to see what they have to say.
 
twoslo4five0 said:
I'm fairly certain that this stock pump needs to go. I refuse to pay 300 bucks for a power steering pump with the "hopes" that it may improve my steering. At 300 bucks im almost halfway to full hydro.
Click to expand...

twoslo4five0 said:
Let me say this, ive had a few rigs with hydro assist. Modded pumps, un modded pumps, big cylinders, small cylinders. They all act the same. Everyone I wheel with has big tires and most have hydro assist. I still see people struggle to steer..
Click to expand...

There's your answer...I was never happy with my assist set ups. Tried everything out there. Probably spent twice the price I paid to run full hydro and a lot of wasted time.
See if John still has that double cylinder.
 
I bought that, and sold it. What pump did you use to run. I'm a waiting a email from KRC to really make my decision. I'm not against full hydro just our last trip at big dogs we spend half the night trying to get a truck back that had a bad pump (brand new) It kept locking up and slinging the belt, made for a real long night. 6k prolly didn't help it either.
 
that's all decided buy the ram and the orbital valve. full hydro really holds no bounds BUT you can still get it wedged up (I don't care what anyone says) when decending if you get all the weight of the truck on the front axle.
 
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