• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Ram assist questions

Okay, first test drive. Felt good all around except for high speed steering. Definitely not getting quite enough flow. Moves fine for normal driving, but I won't be dodging any squirrels (stupid squirrels) just yet. Feels like I'm just not getting quite enough flow and the ram just needs a little more juice.
For those who run into this issue, when you crank the wheel at a normal person speed, it feels fine, but if you crank it like a banshee, it'll turn a little, then feel like the steering is binding up momentarily. This is (probably) caused by the pump not providing sufficient flow to fill the ram as fast as you're commanding.

I'd modified my old Jeep pump long ago when I threw in the durango box, but I'm of course now running a stock GM pump. On the Jeep, I just drilled out the HP fitting on the pump a size or two to increase flow. I'd assumg the GM pump has something similar, but I keep hearing about shimming something instead. I guess the GM pump restricts flow via a flow restricting valve. Will have to do more reading.

But for now, I'll get the ram stop shaved down correctly, clean up my welds, do some painting, tie the hoses somewhere they won't run into the crank pulley, and I'm good to drive.

Who knows about shimming the valve in a GM pump?
 
POLAR_JEEP_04 said:
What diameter shaft did you do with? 1" is the common but is usually slower. Some go with a 3/4" to be able to get quicker steering response.
Click to expand...

Do you mean piston bore? Everywhere I've looked, I've found 1.5" to be the standard for street driven trucks, and 2" for bush monsters. 1" seems too small.

I went with a 1.5" (which is what most vendors sell in their kits).

I just read through a few write ups on increasing pump flow (GM pumps) and the modification looks exactly like the Jeep pump. Just pull the HP fitting and drill it out to around 5/32. Problem is that I don't recall seeing a removable HP fitting on my (05) GM pump. Luckily, I've got a spare 6.0L on the floor, so I'll probably just pull it apart and swap in the whole pump once I've got it modified.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Something doesn't seem quite right as I can't see the HP fitting (removable).
 
I'm running a 1.5"x6" ram from West Texas offroad with a WJ conversion and stock box. No cooler, and 33" tires. Works great. Ram is mounted to the clayton axle side trackbar bracket and is parallel with the tie rod. The WTO ram looks identical to the PSC 1.5" ram. Also when talking to west texas he said don't run a cooler with my size tires, and don't run the bigger Durango box as that increases the volume required from the pump. Pump is stock late model mopar TC that has not been rebuilt.



Mark
 
blistovmhz said:
Do you mean piston bore? Everywhere I've looked, I've found 1.5" to be the standard for street driven trucks, and 2" for bush monsters. 1" seems too small.



I went with a 1.5" (which is what most vendors sell in their kits).



I just read through a few write ups on increasing pump flow (GM pumps) and the modification looks exactly like the Jeep pump. Just pull the HP fitting and drill it out to around 5/32. Problem is that I don't recall seeing a removable HP fitting on my (05) GM pump. Luckily, I've got a spare 6.0L on the floor, so I'll probably just pull it apart and swap in the whole pump once I've got it modified.



Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Something doesn't seem quite right as I can't see the HP fitting (removable).
Click to expand...


No. I'm talking about the piston shaft. The 1.5" is the body size. Like my ram is a 1.5"x8"X1".
 
Ah, shaft is 1". How does shaft size affect steering speed in BOTH directions though? The volume of the shaft should only affect the driver side of the ram. Incidentally, I definitely feel like I can get the wheel moving faster towards passenger than driver, which I think makes sense as there's less fluid volume required on the driver side of the ram due to the shaft removing some of the volume requirement.

So at this point I know I have to drill out the HP fitting/flow restrictor, but everyone seems to do that in combination with shimming the by-pass piston. What exactly does shimming the piston do?

*edit* - Just checked the steering speed again. Definitely can't crank the wheel super fast at idle or at high RPM, so should be the flow restrictor. Checked on the spare pump, and it does in fact have the removable flow restrictor, I just missed it as I did all the work on the system last night in the dark/rain :p
 
Last edited:
Yea, I understand the flow mod and have done it many times, but not sure about the bypass pressure part. What's it do? I've never had to do it with all the floe mods.
 
Oh, looks like the bypass piston just limits line pressure, which in my case, doesn't matter. I should be able to increase the diameter of the flow restrictor without affecting line pressure at all, which is exactly what I want as my line pressure is definitely sufficient. huzah!
 
Bored out the HP flow fitting to 5/32, as per every write up I've seen, but it was barely any bigger than stock, and made no difference with the high speed steering. Real world, I'd rarely need to steer faster than it steers, so it may not matter. I figure if I have to dodge something at high-ish speed, I really wouldn't want to steer faster than I can already, otherwise I'd probably just flip over, and at low speed, the steering is fast enough that I can't imagine needing to go faster. I may just live with it, but I feel like I'm missing something. When I bored out my flow restrictors when I went to 1 ton steering (stock XJ pump and stock XJ box), I'm sure I went bigger than 5/32, and steering speed was unlimited. When I threw the Durango box on, still no speed issues. But with the Chevy pump (which is supposed to be a much higher flow pump than the XJ to begin with), XJ box, and 1.5" bore ram, 5/32 either doesn't seem like enough, or I've got a restriction somewhere.
My HP lines to the RAM are 1/4", and the LP lines are 3/8 with 1/2" NPT fittings on the filter. I still need to add a cooler today, which is only going to decrease flow rate further. I'm wondering if anyone's found they needed to go larger than 5/32 with a chevy pump, or if the restriction is elsewhere (ie: maybe the filter?) Filter was my first thought, but a restriction on the LP side should cause starvation/cavitation, which I'm not hearing.
Thoughts?

Also, what temperature should I be shooting for. All I've seen is "put the biggest cooler you can fit", with no mention of fluid temps. I've got a stack/plate from the 2500 oil cooler I could throw inline. It's about the same size as my trans cooler (around 1'x1.5'). This be sufficient?
 
I have the opposite problem, my steering is too quick on the freeway,
 
I run 3/8" lines. 1/4" was too small and caused the slow response problems you are describing. I'm running a stock pump, psc box, psc ram
 
Pre tapped from PSC. I bought a used surplus center ram that had 1/4" lines with it. Was very slow. Some searching showed 3/8" was a better choice. Also got a PSC ram, problem solved. Lines aren't that expensive
 
Lines are cheap, but I can't tap my box to 3/8 NPT. There's just not enough room. Trying to figure out if 1/4" fittings on the box, to 3/8 hose, to the #6ORBF on the ram will be enough.
I may also just forget about it for a while as it's really not affecting driving, but at the same time, i suspect that going to the bigger lines may make the steering a little less twitchy on the highway
 
The other issue I can foresee is that the return is only 3/8 at the box, but I suppose I could split the return after the oil filter and run it to both returns on the reservoir.
 
RAM is #6 ORBF, which as far as I understand, is 3/8 (ORBF numbers are just x/16's right?).
Even if the fittings are smaller, the larger hose should provide more flow (given the flow restrictor is 5/32 to begin with).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
sector shaft brace
Replies
3
Views
1K
TheXJDrew
TheXJDrew
JohnX
Before SCF, I need to finish....?
Replies
9
Views
97
Carol.92124
Carol.92124
R
Which steering box brace? Bearing or not?
Replies
7
Views
392
75SV1
7
M
XJ brake upgrade
Replies
7
Views
123
RCP Phx
R
S
to drill or not to drill
Replies
4
Views
2K
srb531
S
Back
Top