Rebuilding An Old High School Friend!

The bronco guys often have to remove the box and spin it so that the lines are pointing up in order to get all the air out. There are a ton of posts about them in the Ford forums. Good luck!

 

That is good no know! At least I'm not the only one. Sadly I fabricated a hard return line where it connects to the box so I can't just pop a couple bolts and twist it without redoing that line. No that I won't if I have to, but I think I'll see how this method works first.

Thanks for the insight!

 

Is it wrong/bad to run the engine for bleeding? I jacket up the front, ran engine and turned wheel several times. Easy to do alone.

 

No, I don't think so. That is how most PS units are bled.
....Richie

 

It’s fine, but not all are created equal. Some systems are horribly difficult to bleed. Any time a system foams, that’s micro bubbles that get impregnated throughout the entire system. Those bubbles condense into bigger bubbles when the system is given time to rest, and if the system has any uphill pockets where the air can get trapped, you’re basically starting from scratch with the process.

It took me a solid three days to get all the air pockets out of my wife’s car’s rack and pinion. Lock to lock 30 times while running, let sit for 5-8 hours, repeat.

 

Yesterday I removed two of the steering gear's three mounting bolts and loosened the third, allowing the gearbox to tilt forward to the limit of my hard line. A far cry from turning the box upside down... this did raise the input two or three inches and made a big difference. Even by myself, still turning the pump by hand, I'm getting fairly consistent air out of it. When my daughter got home from school she got to help by turning the input shaft on the gearbox while tapping it with a hammer (that'll teach her not to have any homework!).

Interestingly every now and then the power steering pump has trouble picking up a prime, even though the reservoir is full. Sometimes I have to turn it backwards several revolutions and the reverse quickly for it to start pumping. I'm assuming this is air accumulating in the vanes but lacking x-ray vision I don't know for sure. No bubbles rise in the reservoir when I turn it backwards so it may just be the pump vanes sticking in due to the relatively low rpm of my input. Hard to say. I can say extending the return line so it dumps into the open top of the reservoir has made all the difference in the world seeing the air in the system!

Hopefully a week or two from now I'll have it beat.

 

I don't want to jinx myself... BUT... let's say I am guardedly optimistic. Spent the day turning the pump every hour or so and when my daughter got home this afternoon I now don't see any air as she cycled the box lock to lock as I spin the pump. Also before when I spun it as fast as I could you could hear air in the pump itself... now it is silent as the grave no matter how fast I try to spin it. So we'll see. Like I said I don't want to jinx myself but we'll see what it is like when I get back from my hunting trip on Sunday. Finger's crossed!!

 

Been busy playing catch-up since my hunting trip so I haven't taken the time to sit down and type this up but I think my power steering issues are largely solved!!

Although you can still hear the power steering pump cavitate/whine on occasion, it no longer foams and pukes all over my engine bay. So I'm calling that a win! Also my steering seems much better after my delivery valve modifications. The steering is no longer "slow," or at least it doesn't seem to be. It reverses much quick when snaking through the trees on the farm.

As I mentioned before, I have an LS under the bench that came out of a truck with a steering gear and not a rack. After pulling and disassembling the pump off it, I found that the delivery valve would not just swap into the Buick pump. Using my drill bits as gauge pins I compared the orifices in both valves and found the LS/steering gear valve openings were indeed larger. So I used a #27 drill bit to open up the delivery orifice and sifting through by itty-bitty drill bits I found one that just matched the transfer port and drilled it out as well. I have no idea what the actual bit size was because my set has been all jumbled up and if they have markings on them I can't read them.

Here is a copy to a helpful article that covers such modifications: ( http://www.jimshea.corvettefaq.com/...wer-Steering-Pump-Pressure-Flows-09OC2013.pdf ). But I matched both the orifice and transfer port as closely as I could to the the LS pump and it seems to have worked very well.

So now my plan is to enjoy it this fall and completely ignore the fact I still need to actually attach the shift boot for the transfercase/OD... and figure something out for a parking brake lever or pedal... and adjust the needle on the temp guage... and troubleshoot the random trouble codes in the computer... Wouldn't want to completely finish it!

 

Been driving the Jeep all week locally while awaiting parts for my 24 Valve and I couldn't be happier. The steering is light and nimble, no foaming, no mess!! I love it when a plan comes together!

 

Way to stay with it. I'm glad for you & yes, that's a good feeling, Eh ?

 

Do you by chance remember what signal sender did you use to get a pulse for your VSS please? I'm getting closer to being able to fire my M38 with LN3/SM465/D18 and this is one of my little hurdles. I'm looking at https://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=57/mode=prod/prd57.htm but no idea if the threads are suitable for the speedo cable drive. Any help appreciated.

 

Mrlentle, sorry, not sure how I missed it but I just saw this post. Yes, I used a pass through hall-effect sender that I screwed right to the back of the speedometer and attached the speedo cable to the other side. I've been looking all over for the exact part number I ordered but can't find it. This weekend I'll stick my head (or more likely a mirror) up under the dash and get the part number off of it.

 

Mrlentle, finished up work early and found the part number. SEN-0104160, yes from Dakota Digital, but I ordered mine from Summit. I have not tried to capture any live date from my rig yet so I have no idea what the signal looks like but I've got about 500 miles on it and the engine runs fine... no hiccups or weird fueling problems. Again, I attached it directly to the back of the speedometer and then hooked the drive cable up to it. That way everything is up under the dash and largely protected from the elements.