Hydro Assist still sucks

[Chadnutz]

I put a new pump on and for the first few minutes it felt good. The more I bled it and drove it the harder it got to turn. Finally I took one end of the ram off and it doesn't move either direction. It is fully contracted and just sits there. Still don't have power steering like I did for the first few minutes and the reservoir is full.

There is a bleeder valve on top of the box but I loosened the nut and no air or fluid came out...

Any ideas?

[bburris]

Are you sure the hoses aren't connected to the wrong ends of the ram?

[Chadnutz]

Been through that on pirate. Ram isn't hooked up right now and it never felt like they were fighting. I could feel the delay in the ramp. Then I drilled out the pump a little bit and their timing was more in line.

[agjohn02]

are you sure thats a bleeder valve on top of the box?

[Chadnutz]

Read it on an instruction set...

[CRaSHnBuRN]

are you sure thats a bleeder valve on top of the box?

yeah, the big nut on the top is a bleeder. On mine, I really had to loosen it before anything happened. Also notice how its kinda a two piece set up, with a nut and a threaded piece in the middle? Try loosening the two pieces seperately. That may help, but make sure they are both retightened exactly as they were before, because on mine I just kinda eyeballed it, and it started spraying mist of PS fluid the first time out on the trail. What pump are you using? Is it the mazda one? Does it put out enough pressure and flow to run a hydro assist? It wouldn't be clogged or something? Do you have a reservoir, and is it an external one? Could the suction of the pump be collapsing a line perhaps?

[Chadnutz]

Mazda pump with holes slightly drilled out to increase flow. External reservoir. Didn't check the hoses to see if they are collapsing. I'll look at that today. I don't have much time. :(

[bburris]

Did you "turn up" the pump like the WTOR site says?

Are you sure drilling the holes out a little more is kosher? That doesn't sound like a very exact way of doing things. It seems like the directions are fairly exact about where to port your steering box and how to do it.

[Chadnutz]

Yes I did turn up the pump by drilling out four tiny ass holes where the high pressure line comes out of it. Toyota pumps have one orifice that is drilled out to 13/64. My holes were probably the size of a small paper clip so I went a few small increments up.

I followed the instructions exactly except that my method of increasing pump flow was a little different because I have 4 holes instead of 1.

[CRaSHnBuRN]

do you know anyone who has used a mazda pump succesfully in this application? (I just want to make sure it will work, and that you're not wasting time on other stuff when the pump simply isn't up to the job).

[uglyota]

find out if your pump has a high-pressure relief or bypass or something like that. toys have a spring somewhere that you can beef up by spacing it with a washer to prevent it from bypassing

[agjohn02]

if the thing on top of the box is what i think it is its an adjustment for the box. i think it just serves as a bleeder b/c when you loosen it, its not sealed. id try backing the center stud out a little and see what it does. i tried tightening a box up once, albeit on a chevy truck, and it made the steering very hard and jumpy.

[Chadnutz]

Looks like I'm going to have to take the entire system apart and try to figure out wtf is going on. The pump pumps, but I don't think it's moving enough fluid. I'm going to build my own bracket and look for a better pump as well. I also need to have a look at the ram, because I can't move it at all.

[Chadnutz]

There two different sizes of ports on the steering box. Is the larger port the high pressure side or the low pressure side?

Toyota box...