PSC Steering Issue

Just so there's no confusion.. I'm talking PSC Motorsports, not Poison Spider Customs.

So far, I'm batting .1000 with these parts. Ordered up a bunch of new parts.. all stock replacements. Ordered a new gearbox, steering shaft and power steering pump. I don't have the part numbers in front of me here but I'm not sure they're relevant.

Went to install the new shaft, it's only about a foot too long.. doesn't come remotely close enough to collapsing enough and the ends are wrong. They have a jam nut on the splines but they also have a bolt that goes all the way through. It's centered up when it should be offset.

Next is the power steering pump: looks about the same but the hole that the EXISTING reservior is supposed to insert into is now threaded. Stock is definitely not threaded. Actually, you've got a small o-ring that's supposed to insert in there there. So that won't work.. I specifically remember them telling me that my stock res would work. I know this because I asked them to supply a new one of those as well and the guy told me not to bother. "If your's is in good shape, it'll work just fine"

Now the gear box: installed it and everything went great. Bled the lines, double checked everything and I'm ready to roll. with the wheels on the ground and not rolling, I turned it to the right with very little pressure from ONE finger until it locked... awesome! Nothing hitting anything, good clearance.. good to go.

Turned left and the same thing... takes no effort at all to turn it except that when I turn it to full lock (meaning i never got it all the way there), the steering wheel doesn't want to stop. I can watch the tire stop and it hits the stops on the knuckle but I could definitely keep going with one finger. I'd either twist up that steering shaft like a pretzel or tear that box right off the frame.

The first two are obvious mistakes... Anyone have a clue as to what the last thing could be?

Any suggestions would be great! Thanks...

formatt said:

Just so there's no confusion.. I'm talking PSC Motorsports, not Poison Spider Customs.
Next is the power steering pump: looks about the same but the hole that the EXISTING reservior is supposed to insert into is now threaded. Stock is definitely not threaded. Actually, you've got a small o-ring that's supposed to insert in there there. So that won't work.. I specifically remember them telling me that my stock res would work. I know this because I asked them to supply a new one of those as well and the guy told me not to bother. "If your's is in good shape, it'll work just fine"

Any suggestions would be great! Thanks...

Click to expand...

I can only answer this one. There are 2 pumps that they sell. The first is threaded holes, the second does not. You need to get them to swap yours out for the right one.

Greg

greg.. that's what I'm looking for.

one down, one to go. the intermediate shaft is obvious.

thanks man...

the last one almost sounds like the pitman arm is not splined onto the sector shaft in the right posistion, the steering wheel does not care where it is splined onto the shaft as it will turn forever in either direction so the problem has to lie in the position of the pitman arm on the sector shaft, I wonder if they did not assemble it a few splines off when they built the steering box, I wouldn't think it is the draglink since if it was too short you would not get full lock to the right and if it was too long you would not get full lock to the left, does all this make sense to you, in my head it sounds right but comes out weird when I type it for some reason

I put PSC's Ram assist on my XJ in Oct. Took three steering boxes and more than a few phone calls back to PSC.
To their credit, they were very helpful. Even sent a few extra fittings when I asked.
Give them a call back. They have one guy familiar with XJ's, Think his name is Justin? Not sure.

I agree with the pitman arm mis-install.

Derik

Derik and Richard.. good call on the pitman arm. Richard, the shaft can only go in 2 ways... I asked Calvin (at PSC) about what you mentioned and that's when he brought up how it sits in there.

here's an update:

shaft: wrong one sent. they're going to drop another one in the mail for me. no big deal. Turns out they sent one for a 93-95 YJ instead of a 96 XJ.

pump: 96 is a weird year for steering parts... it's the cutoff year and they have a 50% chance of getting it right. you never know until you actually go to replace the part. They're getting the other type sent out.. again, no big deal.

gearbox: i stumped two guys there (carl and calvin). they've never had this happen before. Calvin is going to have Tom call me here at the office this afternoon and hopefully we can get this worked out. He mentioned there's also a "break-in" period and that *might* be the part of the problem.

I should know more in a few hours. Other than these few things, I can't believe how much torque that gearbox has.. and I'm using it up against the stock power steering pump, for now. I'll give an update as to what I think of it's performance but as of now (all things given), I'm definitely happy with the purchase. It's doing exactly what I bought it for.

Thanks for the input!!!

If you do get it all worked out, would you post the correct part numbers?
I am thinking of an upgrade and if I go this way, I would like to avoid this issue.

Thanks and best of luck.