Just Added Power Steering - OEM pump & Mini-truck box

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Joined
Oct 9, 2008
Threads
94
Messages
1,940
Location
Lake Arrowhead, CA (was), Rocky Top, TN (is)
I've been planning this mod for quite a while now and it isn't 100% done yet, but I thought I'd post up what I have so far. Hopefully this will help someone who does the same project down the road.....major kudos to everyone on MUD who helped me out and, especially, to Simon who lent me a hand (BTW, Simon just bought my '74 FJ55 and will be doing a full resto on it, so keep an eye out for his build thread - it should be good).

I decided to add the power steering because I plow snow with my 40 in the winter months and I'm tired of having numb and sore arms and shoulders from the countless dead-stop turns I have to make (factor in the additional weight of the plow and all the associated bracketry on the front axle and you'll get the idea). Here's a pic of my rig (it's a '76) with the plow on the front:

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I had purchased, several years prior, a "complete" mini-truck kit and had it stuffed in the corner of the garage. I have no idea how much I paid for it....

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It turned out that the pump that came with my kit is out of a Tercel and is supposed to mount in the stock smog pump location (John Smith said he ran this pump and it worked well for him). However, I'm in California and the smog nazis require me to run the smog pump, so I had to decide if I was going to run a Saginaw pump or an OEM pump.

I had recently replaced the original engine with a '79 that had the factory holes tapped in the block for the OEM pump so (as Pin_Head suggested) I decided to go that direction (I like keeping things stock as much as possible, even though it can be more spendy). BTW, if anyone is interested in the Tercel pump, I'm willing to sell it....and I NO idea where that tensioner (at the bottom left of the pic) is supposed to go....

I bought a pump, pulley and bracket and then got (from Specter) the pulley nut (PN 099-28A) and the keyway for the pulley (PN 099-06A). I bolted it up a while back and left it there until I had all the remaining parts ready to go.

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After assembling all my parts (yes, I know there are two high-pressure hoses - more on that to come).....

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and gathering together the tools I figured I'd need, I got started.

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After reading all the threads on MUD about other peoples' experiences, it sounded like getting the pitman arm off was a real pain in the rear. So, starting a month or two ago, whenever I worked on the truck (which was pretty frequently), I'd squirt it with some PB Blaster and whenever I was frustrated with life, I'd go out and whack the pitman a few times with a hammer, hoping it would loosen up.

I bought a pitman arm puller and was sure to buy one that had a lifetime warranty (since several people broke one or more in their attempts to get the arm loose). It ran me $20 at the parts store.

I'd also read that some had put the puller on the arm, loaded it up, and then left it overnight to "entice" the arm to come off, so I thought I'd give that a try. I took off the nut (with a 32mm socket and a breaker bar) and put the puller on.

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I cranked it down and then whacked the arm and the puller bolt a few times with a hammer. I cranked it down a little more and, lo and behold, it came right off! No drama, no parts shooting across the garage, no sound like gunfire. The whole process took well less than 5 minutes.

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With that done, I decided to clean up the frame a bit and give it a coat of fresh satin black paint. I let it dry overnight.

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The next morning I started in on the removal of the gearbox pedestal. I took off the driver's side fender and wheel (I don't know why anyone would try to do this project without taking them off). I used thin cut-off wheels to cut the heads off of the two rivets on the side of the frame (I ended up using a total of three cut-off wheels to get all four rivet heads off). I located the center of the rivet and then drilled a 1/8 inch hole all the way through. Then, I gradually increased the size of the drill bit until I was to a 3/8 inch bit. Then I took an old bolt that was a bit larger than 3/8 inch and punched what was left of each rivet out.

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It worked like a charm - it took a while, but wasn't hard.

While I was working on cutting and drilling, Simon mounted up the new belt - Toyota PN 99343-11570-77 or Specter's PN 099-01A/B. It was a tight fit to get it past the splash shield, but he got it eventually.

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I was hoping to leave the gearbox mounted to the pedestal and just remove the four rivets, but the gearbox was in the way and I couldn't access the rivets on top of the frame. So I took out the four bolts on the firewall that hold the steering column...

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and loosened the bolt where the rag joint attaches to the gearbox. Then I pulled back on the steering wheel until the rag joint came off.

The I removed the gearbox off of the pedestal and removed the two remaining rivets using the same method I used for the first two. Once the pedestal was off, I cleaned up the frame where the pedestal was mounted and gave it a quick coat of paint. We let it dry a bit while we had some lunch.

After lunch, we mounted the new pedestal to the frame. The holes matched up almost perfectly (I had to clean out one hole to get the bolt through).

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I had a tough time getting the washers and nut in through the back side of the frame without dropping them, so I used a bit of adhesive (Goop) on my fingertip (the "sticky finger method") to get the washers and nut on the bolts on the side of the frame.

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For the bolts through the top of the frame, I "glued" the washers and nut together with the Goop so I could put them all on in one shot. I used some blue lock-tite on the threads for some added insurance.

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Next, we put the power steering box up on the pedestal and shoved the rag joint on all the way (this was just for a length measurement - we centered it later). Then we lined up the gearbox onto the pedestal (looking to see that the steering shaft was centered in the hole on the firewall) and drilled an 1/8 inch hole in the pedestal making sure it was centered. I used the same method I used to remove the rivets, increasing the drill bit sizes until I reached the desired 3/8 inch hole. Then, we bolted the gearbox to the pedestal using the one hole we'd just made and then drilled 1/8 inch centered holes in the remaining three spots. Then we moved the gearbox aside again and then opened up the other three holes to 3/8 inch too. Then, we ran the bolts through and installed the associated washers, lock washers, nuts and the lock-tite.

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With that done, we pulled the steering wheel back again to get the rag joint off of the gearbox. We matched up the hash marks on the pitman arm and the shaft and put it on with the lock washer and the 32mm nut. I checked the alignment of the steering wheel to make sure I was getting equal turns between full lock in both directions and that the steering wheel sat straight in the cab with the wheels straight forward. Then, I put the four bolts back in on the firewall and tightened the bolt on the rag joint where it attaches to the gearbox.

Now we had to route the high-pressure hose. I actually had two different hoses, about the same in length, but with different angles on the fittings. Both hoses can be purchased from Napa and they have 16mm inverted flare fittings at both ends. Napa has a ton of different hoses that have the 16mm at both ends, but are different lengths and have different fitting angles/arrangements. Search their online catalog and use the drop-downs to find high pressure power steering hoses. Fudge around with the year built and select Toyota from the pull-down lists and you'll find more options. Thanks to EWheeler for the help with this.

I had to special order/pre-pay for them and they came in a week later. I also considered using 7-3028, 7-2142, and 7-6045 - they might work for someone else's application.

I wanted to run the hoses in such a way as to keep them as far away from the heat of the engine and exhaust as possible. One hose (7-3219) rubbed up against the pre-heater hose slightly, so we went with this one (7-1843)....

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This is how we ran it:


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BTW, it'll use a 5/8 inch wrench to tighten these fittings....weird. I don't think the bend in the line is too extreme and I like the way it is routed around the vacuum lines. I think the other hose would work in a pinch, so I'll throw it in my trail spares box.

We ran the return line like this, going behind the apron-to-fender support. It is a bit long, but I left it this way since I'll most likely add a cooler in the near future.

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My box did not come with a return line nipple, so I ordered one from my local stealership - it had to be special ordered/pre-paid and came in the very next day. It is Toyota PN 44416-34010 and cost $24.90. Thanks to bsevans for posting this up - it fits PERFECTLY. Apparently, the original application for this nipple is a T100. FYI, this fitting takes a 17mm wrench.

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We reinstalled the fender and filled the reservoir with ATF. Then I started the truck and, instantly, we had fluid spraying all over the place. There is a hefty leak at the pump's pulley shaft and it made a huge mess. DANG IT!!

Hopefully, replacing that seal will take care of that - it's $6.46 from Specter (PN 0199-02A). I'll post up the end of the saga when the part rolls in.....

Now to go clean the ATF off of everything....grrrrr....
 
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No prob it was my pleasure. Always nice to see you and your fam. It was mucho fun! Taking a brief ride down the trails with ATF spraying all over the place was the best part, lol!
I am a bit scared of trying to get the Pitman off of the Pig. :frown: let me know when you get the seal for the pump I'll head up!! :clap:
 
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Good write up, after the P/S is it good to go?

The truck runs very well, but I'm going to fab up some new plow brackets before the white stuff starts falling again. Of course, there's always other things to tinker with.....
 
No prob it was my pleasure. Always nice to see you and your fam. It was mucho fun! Taking a brief ride down the trails with ATF spraying all over the place was the best part, lol!
I am a bit scared of trying to get the Pitman off of the Pig. :frown: let me know when you get the seal for the pump I'll head up!! :clap:

Yeah, that was fun, but the best is yet to come! :cool: Don't buy a pitman arm puller, you can use mine. Start soaking it in the PB Blaster now - I think that really helped.
 
Great documentation! It's a pleasure to read a good how to thread.

I need to get one of those 90 degree nipples myself. Just too many other things competing for my attention these days.

It's only June 1 and your talking about snow already? :D
 
rag joint

how much did you have to cut off the steering column to make it fit?
 
Okay, so here's the end result....

D'Animal took a look at my pump after I took it off the truck and broke it down. Here's the link to that process: https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/287106-leaking-oem-40-series-ps-pump.html.

So, after replacing the nose (the front of the pump housing) which had a functional bushing (though worn) in it (thanks D'Animal), and replacing the seals with a kit from CDan, I mounted the pump back up, tightened the belt, ran the high and low pressure lines, and filled the reservoir with ATF.

Then, the fender went back on and the wheel. I noticed at this point that the new, shiny black paint on the gearbox and frame was starting to wrinkle and peel off......the rear cup on the master cylinder is almost empty and is dripping from between the MC and the booster. Great, another project......:o

Then, I bled the system by turning lock-to-lock with both front wheels off the ground. Did this 20-30 times back and forth, checking the fluid level every 10 times or so and adding fluid as necessary.

Then, I dropped the truck back down on the ground and gave her a spin around the block. The steering was smooth and responsive, but not "twitchy." Came back and checked everything out.....no shaft wobble, no leaks, no squealing.....looks good to me! :bounce:

The :princess: drove it a bit and said it handles like an entirely different truck (now, she'll want to drive it more :steer:).....hmmmm, maybe I shouldn't have done that.....

The steering will improve even further once I've rebuilt the center arm and replaced the TRE's. This is a great mod....should have done it sooner. It is easy for someone with only basic mechanical knowledge to do and I highly recommend it.

Thanks to everyone for their help and input (especially Dan). Cheers! :beer:
 
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how much did you have to cut off the steering column to make it fit?

from the post
Next, we put the power steering box up on the pedestal and shoved the rag joint on all the way (this was just for a length measurement - we centered it later). Then we lined up the gearbox onto the pedestal (looking to see that the steering shaft was centered in the hole on the firewall) and drilled an 1/8 inch hole in the pedestal making sure it was centered. I used the same method I used to remove the rivets, increasing the drill bit sizes until I reached the desired 3/8 inch hole. Then, we bolted the gearbox to the pedestal using the one hole we'd just made and then drilled 1/8 inch centered holes in the remaining three spots. Then we moved the gearbox aside again and then opened up the other three holes to 3/8 inch too. Then, we ran the bolts through and installed the associated washers, lock washers, nuts and the lock-tite.

The pedestal was not drilled, so the box can be moved forward or back as needed to fit the steering shaft. Once in position drill the holes in the plate
 
thanks

man, i registered on this site just to say thankyou

i have been searching for the 90 deg return line fitting for the steering box for 2 hours and you have a picture posted with with part number :)

good job on the post !!!!
 
FYI, I believe the nipple for a 91-92 FJ80 will work, too. Don't know which would be cheaper from the dealer, but I took one off a '92 and it looked like it would fit as well.....

BTW, welcome Rookie! You'll get hooked on this site.....I did......:beer::D
 
Excellent write-up!

I haven't seen this done before, I thought everybody moved the steering box and eliminated the idler arm.

Do you have any feeling on how this works compaired to using FJ60 setups?

My HJ45 could use power steering, (or to be more accurate I could) and "over here" the options would be a complete FJ60 setup or what you have just done...
 
Alot of people seem to really like the FJ60 setup since it eliminates the drag link. It is, however, a little more involved (welding included) than the mini-truck. I did the complete conversion (once I had all the right parts together) in a day.....

Do a search.....I know there are alot of other threads on MUD about the pros and cons, etc...
 
This is an older thread that I missed somehow. Thanks for the write-up. I am bookmarking this because I am very close to starting this same project. I will start now spraying PBBlaster.
 
PB Blaster rocks. Each time you spray it, whack the top and sides of the pitman arm with a hammer to loosen it all up.....

BTW, I've been EXTREMELY happy with the conversion. I run a snow plow in the winter and 31 inch tires (with chains sometimes) and I did most of my steering with one hand. The plow and brackets weigh several hundred pounds and adds to the weight on the front axle quite a bit. No problems at all....

I don't know how I plowed snow with manual steering for so long.....should have done this conversion years and years ago!
 
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