Hey Familyman...got Q for you

[crawlin68]

So how do you like your hydro assist steering now that you have used it for a while? I got me a 79 D60 front end and I'm going to to strat building it slowly and I'm thinking about going with a hydro assist set up. You sent your box to Redneck didn't you? Or was it West Texas? Anyway, give me some post tech info. Would you do anything differnt?

[Familyman]

Hey, I am very pleased with West Texas Off road/Redneck ram. They did a great job. For those who aren't familiar with them they take your steering box rebuild and port it for a ram and then based on application will send you a ram, your box, and all the attachment hardware.
The steering is great, no leaks and it turns quick (due to the 3:1 sector shaft) Thats right 3 turns lock to lock. Yea its maybe to fast for some on the freeway but I have got use to mine and you learn that it doesn't take alot of imput to turn the rig. I would probably not do the fast sector shaft again since I drive mine on the road to all my runs but if you have the 79 box I believe its 4.5 turn lock to lock and that would be great. Off-road however the quick steer rules minimal imput and maximum performance.
The biggest problem I had with mine was setting it up, probably due to the inexperience of the owner. Once I was able to find a spot it was a matter of building a mount and taking the time to set it up. I accually tried mounting it 3 times before I found a spot that worked accross the whole throw of the ram.
Crawling I know you put alot of work into yours but if I were building a 60 again at the point your at I might try to remove my trac bar and mount it to the rear of the axle. The reason is that the pumkin of the 60 is so much bigger then the 44 that trac bar clearence is its own issue (built that 3x also) . It will free up alot of space up front and avoid the scissor effect of the trac bar and drag link. I did nearly cut off one of the line ends when I cycled the suspension rather quick (didn't seem that deep) and caught it with the trac bar. I have since moved the lines alittle and had no problems on the 'Con. Hope that helps. FM

[crawlin68]

Thanks for the update. If you don't mind me asking, what was the total $$$ to set up your steering? Thanks for the tip on moving the trac bar to the rear of the axle tube. I'll look at that once I get the 60 a built up and ready to install. I think that I'll just my 44 in the mean time sense it's already built and ready to go. Then I'll do a swap later down the road and sell the 44.

[Familyman]

The shipping was about $90 both directions and the cost of my system was $650 but if you don't have a EB ps box then its $500 for the standard system . Here is a price list http://westtexasoffroad.homestead.co...osteering.html
I got the System 2.
One more thing to note - I did the ps pump upgrade listed on that site and it worked o.k. I only took out 1 shim and I will be removing the next this winter (see the write-up you will understand) and I ported out the fitting to the max.diameter. I am refering to a saginaw pump not a ford. On 'Con the pump did well 90% of the time but there were times I was suprised to be locked up and not able to turn the wheel. I have since thought that if the further upgrade on the pressure side of my pump doesn't fix this then I will buy a Howe pump with reservior. Hope this helps, FM

[crawlin68]

Cool. The #2 system looks like the way to go.