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hydro assist steering

Chuy84k5

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so last night was the first day that I finally got to take my k5 out around the block I was super stoked. I realized I need to work on the breaks or possibly just bleed them they are a bit spongey , but the thing that was the most concerning was the steering. it was very difficult to turn the steering wheel at idle or slow speeds . I have a 4 inch lift with a 3 inch body lift (done by previous owner) with the 35 inch tires on a 10 bolt corporate diff. I'm looking into hydraulic assist to help with my steering situation. however can I run a hydro assist with stock push and pull steering or do I need to go to high steering?any help from the brotherhood would be highly appreciated.
 
Yep fix what you have first before going to hydraulic, you should not have any issues on the street with the setup you listed
 
where do you think I should start ? its ls swapped and the power steering pump is new im running hydroboost if that makes any difference. I am planning on swapping g out all the ball joints with mogs and tiered ends even though the ones that are on there aren't horribe
do yall guys think that would help ?
 
I would start with your draglink/pitman arm/steering arm. If PO didnt spend time to set this up properly, then it could be the base of the problem. with stock push/pull steering, the draglink should be perfectly level. any angle will increase steering effort. there are a few companies out there that make raised steering arms, and drop pitman arms for this. To avoid all that mess, you can upgrade to crossover steering, but that's a little more involved and more expensive on the stock 10 bolt.

If all that seems kosher, then you can look at an upgrade kit for your PS pump.
 
I saw a kit that has the flat top knuckle for the passanger side that's drilled and tapped the bracket that attaches the drag link(basically two ball joints and a dom tube) and the pitman arm. with this set up ill need to swap out my gear box right ? would this be it in parts to convert to cross over steering
 
You can have ORD machine your existing knuckle for you. Quick turnaround, too!
 
You can get a 2wd steering box, but you can also rebuild yours with a 2wd sector shaft. Rebuilding isn't too difficult -- the kit is cheap and probably available at your local O'AutoParts.
 
You shouldn't have any issues turning 35" tires on the street if the stock steering is working correctly. The red flag is you have hydroboost and you say the brakes feel spongy also. Since the p/s pump supplies the boost to both the brakes and the steering, and the brakes don't feel right either, you need to verify the p/s pump and all related components are working correctly.

For some of the other questions....yes, you can run hydro-assist steering with the stock push-pull setup. I wouldn't see any issue on the street but if you got into full flexed out off-roading it could cause some binding. You can also run hydro-assist steering with hydroboost, but since you are relying on the p/s pump to supply flow to the steering, brakes, and now hydro-assist you can get into issues.
 
thanks for they help guys. they hydroboost set up was from the doner that I pulled the engine and trans from a 2005 suburban and both steering and brakes worked fine. the hydroboost was about 8 months old when the truck got wrecked. so maybe the powersteering pump is bad ? I've seen it happen even new ones come bad out of the box any way I can test this thery prior to pulling it
 
I had the same issue with my crewcab dually.( hydroboost) when slowing down ( say to make a corner) the brakes sucked and steering was terrible. didn't do it all the time. replaced the pump and still the same thing. the shop ended up drilling out the pump to provide more flow and it works awesome.
 
o dam really i didn't even know that was a thing . could bigger lines do the same thing you think ?
 
No there’s a flow or pressure regulator in the pump outlet that can be swapped (or I suppose drilled) out. EricTheCarGuy has a good video or two on this.
 
The lines are fine, just need more flow. it was amazing the difference. if you have a problem finding out how to do it i will get you in contact to the shop that did mine.
 
great yea man I'm just looking to the easiest solution for my rig I've put so much time and money (haven't we all guys) to not feel safe driving her
 

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