Power steering cooler upgrade

[WckedMidas]

now your ghonna think im nuts but few years back mypops had a didge pickup quad cab he had a 440 motor in it and a 727 tourqeflight trans he used a old condensor from a ac unit off a junk car for his trans cooler bigger probly cheap if ya got one laying around out back the house on a old project to huh

 

[stayalert]

now your ghonna think im nuts but few years back mypops had a didge pickup quad cab he had a 440 motor in it and a 727 tourqeflight trans he used a old condensor from a ac unit off a junk car for his trans cooler bigger probly cheap if ya got one laying around out back the house on a old project to huh

You may be nuts but not because of using a heat exchanger from something other than a car...

 

[ptmacp]

I just did the same thing this weekend, for the same reason, but mounted it to the tranny cooler. Anyone have an issue with that?

Pete in Nashville
93 FJZ80

 

[stayalert]

And no problems so far?

I like Rick's set up and would be willing to do the metal tube, but my time and my resources are getting thin in this end...

Thank!
-onur

Rick's job still strikes me as mo betta....However...Mine still is working a-one-trouble free a year or so later...

 

[Scamper]

Stayalert-your job was what sold me on this method, though I too think Rick's install was pretty nice. I'm more of a functional guy, so if my plans work out for me--as yours did for you--that's a good thing.

Your cooler is definitely less expensive; I simply felt that going one step further than Rick, I could buy a cooler that was more like the OEM version and mount it in the same location, saving the hassle of pulling the front of the truck apart.

The one thing I struggled with was whether or not the cooling capacity of the unit I selected was equal to or greater than the stock unit. The FSM speaks nothing of the cooling unit (WTF is that about?), and your unit as well as Ricks are unknowns as far as cooling capacities (Summit does not publish these data), so I just got one that was about the same size as the stock unit, figuring it should be similar in capacity...

Glad to hear yours is still going strong. I think I'll post up here when I get the parts and do the deed.

 

[landtank]

Scamper, the stock unit is nothing more than a length of tubing bent like a paper clip. I have to believe the cooler I used is better than that.

 

[Scamper]

That's all there is to it for like $300?! I had imagined some kind of super-efficient high-tech cooling coil that just happened to look like a bent paper clip. Heck, I could just as easily have bent a length of tubing to match that and installed it for like $10. Geeze...well at least my PS fluid will be nice and cool now.

 

[DTAYLOR]

fagettaboutit!

Landtank,

That is a great mod!

After reading this, I cannot feel good about leaving my old cooler as is. I must do this mod before i put the 80 back together!

So much for being done by Thanksgiving.

 

[landtank]

The one thing I'd do differently is to get some SS lines. I found a site on the web that sold SS in a soft line so they could be bent using a tubing bender. Mine are starting to show some wear and the SS would be bullet proof.

 

[Grench]

Not cheap, but if you're doing stainless fittings, these guys make some great ones.

http://www.swagelok.com/

I used to use them exclusively when I worked in the experimental fuels industry.

 

[landtank]

No need to get that fancy. I got a double flaring tool and only went half way, basically expanding the tube on the end so a hose clamp would seal things up. Also, be sure to buy hose intended for power steering fluid, the regular stuff tends to fall apart.

 

[stayalert]

No need to get that fancy. I got a double flaring tool and only went half way, basically expanding the tube on the end so a hose clamp would seal things up. Also, be sure to buy hose intended for power steering fluid, the regular stuff tends to fall apart.

or hose for ATF.....

 

[Scamper]

Also, be sure to buy hose intended for power steering fluid, the regular stuff tends to fall apart.

How does one recognize this stuff? Is this just hydraulic line, or is there something special to ask for?

 

[landtank]

I asked for it and they had it boxed up behind the counter in different lengths. The other stuff comes on reels and is a whole lot cheaper.

 

[Scamper]

Seem to be seeing a lot of guys suddenly doing these PS cooler replacements; or maybe I just noticed it now since my own went.

In any case, I thought I'd share my replacement experience with you all:

My PS cooler went on me without any warning. What appeared to be a leak in the PS pump itself, turned out to be a leak in the PS cooler; starting slowly and progressing to its obvious demise.

The insidious thing about the PS cooler is that it’s not described in the FSM—at least nowhere that I’ve seen. I thought my original “leak” was the result of a faulty PS pump seal, but upon rebuilding the pump, the leak persisted. I finally discovered the leak by accident (saw a dripping fluid from the front of the truck) since the fluid being lost only came out when the engine was running and the system pressurized, and I tend not to stick my head under the truck with the engine running…

Rather than using a standard tranny cooler to replace the “paper clip” cooler that is stock (at about $300) with the requirement to remove the radiator, I went the route that others here have gone and went with an aftermarket solution. Instead of a fin/tube tranny cooler, I went with a heat-sink transmission cooler from Summit (DER-13252; $65) which is an all aluminum cooler with more cooling capacity than the paper clip it replaces. I probably could/should have done fine with a shorter version (check out Summit’s site for other sizes), but I had been trying to match the length of the original paper clip which I measured to be about 17 inches long. The first pic is the original leaking “paper clip” with hold down bolts removed. The second pic is the new cooler I used. [FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]You can see it has mounting brackets welded on which will be used to attach to the front cross-member where the original paper clip would be. The last one is a Star-Wars looking shot of the inside of the cooler, looking thru the end hole where you can see it's got fins inside as well as outside. [/FONT]​

​

 

[Scamper]

My original thought was to use the OEM plumbing and just feed this cooler from the two lines shown here cut at where the bend (just to the left of the large hole in the crossmember) [first pic].


As I found out after installing it with these lines, is that there was also a leak with at least one of these pipes at the point where it/they cross the cross-member on top—this is not visible without removing the radiator though. Due to the closeness of the OEM installation (I doubt there was even a millimeter between one of those pipes and the crossmember), the pipe had rotted out on top of the crossmember resulting in yet another/different leak. At this point, I decided that it made sense to just replace all the plumbing between the PS reservoir and the PS box. Pulling out the lines was easy but required removal of the skid plate attached to the crossmember as well as the battery box (you might be able to do this without removing either, but it’s much easier to just remove these parts).

Fortunately, the crossmember has large holes at front and back allowing easy access from front or back, as well as a few holes on the bottom that are just the right size for feeding through a 3/8 inch PS hose. I ran PS line from the PS box and PS reservoir to the crossmember, where I plumbed both lines into the crossmember thru the large hole on the back of the driver’s side. One of the lines (doesn’t matter which) goes thru the hole at the bottom of the crossmember right under the large DS hole, and the other hose is routed longitudinally thru the crossmember to the bottom hole to the PS side then down thru the bottom hole there as shown in the second picture.


[FONT=&quot]You can see in the third pic where they attach to the PS reservoir and PS box. [/FONT]

 

[Scamper]

After making all connections and refilling with ATF, (takes about 2 qts due to the size of this cooler), the system was bled by raising the front axle and performing the standard side-to-side turns while maintaining the fill in the reservoir until the fluid ran clear and was not foaming; about 5 minutes in all.

The pump is now running quietly without any foaming in the reservoir. If I were to do this again, I’d get a shorter cooler; I don’t think you need one this size (18”) and think 12” would be more than adequate for this application and allow more room for the end connections to be made. Since I don’t use this truck off-road significantly, I’m not worried about the routing of these lines, but if I did, I’d probably run the lines across the top of the cooler and mount the cooler a bit lower on the crossmember so that the lines didn’t drop below the lever of the cooler at all. That said, even with the way I’ve routed the lines, you’d loose your front bumper before snagging one of these lines, so meh...

 

[landtank]

Next up, your rear heater tubes

 

[IBCRUSN]

Nice install. Do you have a pic from the snail eye view?

 

[Scamper]

That's bad karma Rick...

IBC: Sorry, I didn't bother since there's really nothing to see there except the holes I ran the hose thru--it's an exact fit for 3/8 inch hose.