Hydro Assist

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EarthX

EarthX

Owner of Earth Exploration Technologies
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Threads
86
Messages
878
Location
Lake Arrowhead
Is there such thing as a hydro assisted setup that retains the return to center effect? Id like to do it but without return to center driving on the street would not be too enjoyable. :cheers:
 
Matt at west texas is awesome.

BTW, all hydro assist is return to center. Unless of course your alignment is so screwed up that it won't. Which is not all that hard to do at all.

The onyl steering that is pretty much non return to center is full hydro (no draglink) that is open loop. And even then, if you have enough caster, it will return to center.

There is not a single reason not to do Hydro assist..

Driving Bob aired down to 10 psi on the street was kinda annoying. I will probably get a ram for him in the near future.
 
Mace said:
BTW, it is not hard to rebuild your own box and drill it for hydro assist.

Cost is only ~ $60.00

Then the ram you most likely need is right here.
Burden Sales Surplus Center Item Detail
Click to expand...

Wow, this is great to know. It can be done for much cheaper than I thought.:cheers:

Edit:
Will adding the assist slow down the rate of steering? If so by how much?
 
It will make it a bit sluggish. You figure You have to move a ton more fluid to make the same turn. The cure is more volume through the system. On the earlier pumps, you just need to open up the restrictor a bit. On the later pumps, you can swap in an opened up earlier restrictor.
 
freds40 said:
It will make it a bit sluggish. You figure You have to move a ton more fluid to make the same turn. The cure is more volume through the system. On the earlier pumps, you just need to open up the restrictor a bit. On the later pumps, you can swap in an opened up earlier restrictor.
Click to expand...

Do you know if that is possible with an fzj80 pump, thats what im running right now. :cheers:
 
Not positive but it's pretty easy to find out. If you pull the high pressure hose from the pump, then pull the hex shaped piece the hose threaded into, you can find out. This piece is the restrictor. If it has 1 orifice in the middle, it's easy to open up. The other style has 2 orifices that taper from the outer edge @ the top to the center on the bottom. I tried to drill an additional hole dowh the center of one of these and the piece had an open cavity in the middle that would disrupt flow pretty good.

My suspicion is the 80 pump will have the 2 orifices as I've found most early 85' and newer pumps (mini and cruiser) have the single orifice and the later pumps had the 2 orifices. On my 60 I was able to swap the restrictor. Not sure if it's the same piece on the 80 pump but it might be an option.
 
Increasing the flow helps a lot. Also, the 1.5" ram is a better size for a stockish pump. 2" has more assist, but you "feel" it more.
I have never felt a 1.5" ram be slow at anything other than a stoplight. There is enough fluid moving when the engine is running at almost any speed to counteract the additional volume needed. That being said, I have never used one with a later model Toy pump..

Or switch to a sag pump.
 
I have a sag pump that I drilled out the restrictorr for more flow. It's not slow at all and I could move my 39s locked up and aired down to 4-psi in the rocks with minimal effort. Honestly I dont see any downside as long as you are able to keep the fluid cool.
 
brokenparts said:
I have a sag pump that I drilled out the restrictorr for more flow. It's not slow at all and I could move my 39s locked up and aired down to 4-psi in the rocks with minimal effort. Honestly I dont see any downside as long as you are able to keep the fluid cool.
Click to expand...

Yup I added a tranny cooler to mine and it doesnt boil over anymore :hillbilly:
 
freds40 said:
Not positive but it's pretty easy to find out. If you pull the high pressure hose from the pump, then pull the hex shaped piece the hose threaded into, you can find out. This piece is the restrictor. If it has 1 orifice in the middle, it's easy to open up. The other style has 2 orifices that taper from the outer edge @ the top to the center on the bottom. I tried to drill an additional hole dowh the center of one of these and the piece had an open cavity in the middle that would disrupt flow pretty good.

My suspicion is the 80 pump will have the 2 orifices as I've found most early 85' and newer pumps (mini and cruiser) have the single orifice and the later pumps had the 2 orifices. On my 60 I was able to swap the restrictor. Not sure if it's the same piece on the 80 pump but it might be an option.
Click to expand...

Ill have to pull that out and check. Ill be happy if it had only the one orifice.
Last question, would any of you hesitate to put one on a daily driver?
 
I'm running HA and am also DD'ing my rig. It's the best steering stabilizer available.
 
Last edited:
Mace said:
BTW, it is not hard to rebuild your own box and drill it for hydro assist.

Cost is only ~ $60.00

Then the ram you most likely need is right here.
Burden Sales Surplus Center Item Detail
Click to expand...

I had considered this...
Ive also read SOME stories about folks who went back and bought a kit after doing it them selves.
Ill probably print off your write up and do it myself, but its nice to know of a different resource other than PCS (PSC?)
I gasped at the prices, but Im a cheap bastard to begin with.
Ill do mine when I do the V8...
I just hope my rig runs again after I do all this crap!:eek:

Chicago
 
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