Steering Box Oddity (1 Viewer)

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Can anyone educate me on what this is on my JDM HDJ80 Steering Box? It’s definitely not on my FZJ80.

F73EC6DB-B247-412B-820C-23E12CE7DF05.jpeg
 
Not sure but I wonder if that’s the electric power steering assist found on some 105s 🤔
 
It is a 1990 JDM RHD and the PO replaces the steering box fairly recently. He claimed to have had a helluva time finding one. I would have ventured a guess that the wiring to it was factory. Most of the add-on wiring was done by a drunk 12yr old and is very obvious.
 
In case anyone stumbles across this later: After some digging I found it to be factory variable assist solenoid that was standard on all European VXs. Apparently. Interesting. Now I'm vaguely curious about whether it would bolt on to a LHD box... Probably best to just leave it reliably simple.

Variable assist power steering
 
Now I gotta know :bounce:
 
I have mentioned the variable assist before but it was poo poo'd and apparently did not exist, (of course there was some jealousy driving these comments) anyway yes the HDJ80 steering is feather light at idle and gets heavier when on the move. Occasionally the solenoid can stick, it just wants a change of fluid and job done.


regards

Dave
 
Now that's interesting. The picture looks to have a solenoid. That would give it two settings as the above post mentioned. I wonder how its controlled. On some GM and Ford vehicles you had something similar. Full power at idle then half at freeway speeds. These were controlled by vehicle speed. I know Ford controlled it in the pump, cant remember how GM did it. I vaguely remember one model of Vett having 3 different power settings. Over 45mph, you had manual steer to give it a good road feel.

OH, as the above post mentions, solenoid sticking and needing a fluid change, yeah. Two fluids most people never change are Brake and Power Steering.
 
That's progressive power steering (PPS) that 80's came with in some markets.
The solenoid changes the valving on the steering box so that the steering is stiffer on the highway and easier to turn at slow speeds.
 
Bump because I'm dealing with trying to replace/rebuild one of these fancy progressive units. The Redhead is of course the normal 80 series unit.
It bolts right in, but there are two issues.

1. The housing on the steering shaft side is a bit shorter on the USA spec one so the u-jount that fits onto the splines between the shaft and the box is a half inch short. It gets onto both sides splines a "safe-ish" amount, but it's not technically long enough.

2. The bigger issue at the moment is that the Euro Progressive box has banjo bolts that thread the input/return line into the box. It looks like on a USA spec 80 the input and return line have different flared end hoses like a brake line would. So, the euro bolts are leaking like crazy. I guess I need a non-progressive u-joint/splines and hoses or I need to get my progressive box rebuilt.

The bummer is that we're dead in the water in Reno, NV and we can't move or work until I figure it out. I have the Redhead box on there now and the Progressive box that dumps ATF out just as fast as you add it.

Any ideas?
 
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Bump because I'm dealing with trying to replace/rebuild one of these fancy progressive units. The Redhead is of course the normal 80 series unit.
It bolts right in, but there are two issues.

1. The housing on the steering shaft side is a bit shorter on the USA spec one so the u-jount that fits onto the splines between the shaft and the box is a half inch short. It gets onto both sides splines a "safe-ish" amount, but it's not technically long enough.

2. The bigger issue at the moment is that the Euro Progressive box has banjo bolts that thread the input/return line into the box. It looks like on a USA spec 80 the input and return line have different flared end hoses like a brake line would. So, the euro bolts are leaking like crazy. I guess I need a non-progressive u-joint/splines and hoses or I need to get my progressive box rebuilt.

The bummer is that we're dead in the water in Reno, NV and we can't move or work until I figure it out. I have the Redhead box on there now and the Progressive box that dumps ATF out just as fast as you add it.

Any ideas?

It seems like you kinda answered your own question there - with a non-progressive box, you need a matching section of the steering shaft and matching hoses...

Steering shaft shouldn't be too difficult to find used. I should have a couple laying around but you can probably get them faster locally.

As for the high pressure hose, you can use a US-spec (1FZ) hose, but you would need to grind off the tab on the pump-side banjo fitting that is designed to go against the stop on the pump to keep the fitting from spinning when you're tightening the bolt. On 1FZ and 1HD ps pumps the stop for that tab is oriented differently. You could re-weld the tab on the fitting in the proper spot, or just leave it off - you can just hold the fitting in place by other means when tightening/loosening the bolt.

For the return hose/fitting, a 1FZ one will work without modifications.

Ideally you would want to use the correct 1HD/1HZ Toyota hose, but if you're in a bind you can get the 1FZ one for cheap from RockAuto or such.
 
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My first thought would be to take the lines/box to a good radiator repair shop or AC shop that does custom lines. They should be able to make lines or put the correct ends on your current lines.

Is your rig RHD or LHD? I’ve been meaning to start parting out my RHD parts truck, I just haven’t gotten around to it.
 
Bumping this because I am in the same situation (and oddly enough, location: reno-ish) as SOAZtim.

RHD hdj81 with a borked solenoid steering box trying to be replaced by a "standard" RHD box.

Any OEM low and high pressure lines/fittings I can order?
What year RHD 80 came with the standard box so I can start to look there?

Any help appreciated.
Doing this job for a customer and a simple box replacement job just got a lot harder, trying to reduce his (and my) pain.

TIA
 

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