Full Hydro Questions and Advice

[4wdOwnage]

I currently have a 8v in my tracker and have ran full hydro with a single ended 8" 1.75" bore ram for a couple years now with 31" skinny tractors with no issues. I have a PSC TC series 1650psi 4.5gpm pump and a 4.8ci (i'm guessing on the orbital) all of which before were on a sami front axle which was using heims on the drag link with a simple tab and a simple ram mount on the top of the axle above the diff and had 1 finger steering. I then put 2 trips on the 35" tractor tires I have now and didn't really notice any steering issues.

Recently I swapped all of that over the the toyota axle I bought which already had the TG hi-steer setup with FJ80 ends and I used the tab on top of the axle as well as the one on the drag link to mount my ram to. In the process I had the orbital rebuilt because it leaked, had the cylinder rebuilt, as well as the PSC pump and now first trip out in the woods the steering is horrible unless i'm moving or have a good amount of rpm's the steering simply won't move as if it's in a bind. I have a 5" pulley on it and am not sure what to swap out next to remedy the problem is it really going to be noticable going down to the 4.5" recommended pulley or is my money better spent just purchasing a larger diameter bore ram? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[blazerbrad]

So you have the same ram, orbital, and pump as before but rebuilt? It worked fine before but now does not, correct?

The obvious thing is to make sure all the air is out of the system as air pockets will cause the condition you mentioned. The next things I would look at is the 'yota front axle and steering setup since that is the thing that has changed (making the assumption that the steering parts were rebuilt correctly). Is there any binding on the knuckles or connections to the ram?

What type of leverage do the steering arms (how far do they stick out from the center line of the tires) on the 'yota axle provide as compared to the previous axle?

If nothing obvious in the above I would start looking at the components you had rebuilt and make sure they are correct. Especially make sure the pressure relief valve on the pump isn't stuck.

[twiztedzuki]

i got piece of dirt in line and wouldnt steer for **** and burnt psc pump up!!!

[riegel]

x2 on the air in the lines.

[4wdOwnage]

I'm going to go ahead and ditch the FJ80 ball ends and TG drag link and go bak to heims like I had before on a piece of .250 wall DOM and move ram mount on the axle from working on a horizontal axis to on a vertical one which is how the old one was done. Is there any one place that's better than another to bleed air out of the system on the low pressure side? And does anyone have any pictures of their single ended ram setup.

This is how it used to be setup and worked fine even with the 35's for the 2 trips they were on the sami axle

http://www.terill.com/john/tracker/sas/hydrosteeer3.jpg

[Nuts]

To bleed my double sided cyl I jacked up the front till the tires were off the ground then without the motor running I turned the wheels back and forth almost from lock to lock about a million times. Then let it sit for awhile and repeated. Probably did that 4 times before i started the motor and did the same process again.

[4wdOwnage]

Thanks I'll give that a shot tomorrow and see what happens:thumbup:

[twiztedzuki]

yeah i do whats nuts does. i fill lines best can with fluild and jack tires off ground and keep cycling it back and forth not running. then i start engine and do same to be sure

[riegel]

heres my set up with 4 link.
http://i931.photobucket.com/albums/ad151/riegel75/fj40/021-1.jpg

[twiztedzuki]

i would put sum armor in front it, like bend a tube and plate it or sumthing with cylinder low and in front on frontend to keep from beating off stumps and rocks

[yellowjacket]

Not to hijack, but if that avatar is ur rig, id very much like to see a bigger pic of it... can't quite make it out but I like the stance...

[riegel]

i have the bar bent for it it just not in the pic.im lazy lol
http://i931.photobucket.com/albums/ad151/riegel75/fj40/SDC12702.jpg

[twiztedzuki]

looks badass!!:thumbup:

[gothodgie]

That narrowed fj40 bezel and hood looks really good... Nice to see some one uses yota sheet metal...

:beers:

[yellowjacket]

That, sir, is a nice buggy:cool:

Well you've throw every variable into the mix, with every componet being rebuilt or redesigned.. sounds like uve wheeled it a little since the changes.I would think the air should be worked out by now. I've never had air issues besides the initial bleeding everyone mentioned, maybe I been lucky...

I would be curious what type of resovoir u had, if it was smooth flowing to the pump, and where the return feeds into it.. psc recomends gravity being what flows the fluid from res to pump, so if ur trying to make the pump suck it via long lines or res not above pump, I would alter that aspect.. on the res itself, is the return dumping in BELOW the fluid level?. If not, the pump is likely cavitating and mixing air w the fluid and sending it to the pump



If ur not bindin when u cycle it w motor off, I think ur goodon ur geometry, as ud feel binding with just cylcing it by hand
Is that pulley the same u had before the probs?

I would tend to believe if res is ok, and flowing, prob is in pump or orbital. Espec it res hasent
changed either since before. Of those two, I bet money on the pump.

[4wdOwnage]

I ordered a PSC 160cc orbital and 2.5"x8 single ended ram today. Goodies should be in next week. I figure that should fix the problem after doing some testing last night I think the orbital in addition to leaking pretty bad right out of where the shaft goes in is bypassing more fluid than it should when turning left and right and doesn't seem to be flowing any fluid at an idle we'll see what happens and I'll report back. Also they seemed to think with the 3" wheel spacers and such that the 1.75" bore was minimally compliant which is why I went ahead and ordered:D I'm down to a month before our trip to Harlan for the crawl 4 christ so need to get this fixed asap