Hey all - wrapping up my hydro assist install. To have such a great product, PSC sends ZERO instructions, so you go to their site and they have some so-so instructions, and none for the kit I have. There's really not even an XJ kit - I was told it was a TJ kit or something but there's no instructions for that anywhere.

ANYWAY

I'm trying to figure out how to route the high-pressure hoses from the box to the ram - there's this diagram on their site:

https://www.pscmotorsports.com/media...pump-route.pdf

But I'm reading where a lot of other jeep guys (not XJ) said they had to do the OPPOSITE or it didn't work...sigh. I could just guess but I'd rather not spill that fluid all over the place to reverse them if I can help it - plus just doesn't seem like it would be good to have the box and ram fighting each other as strong as they both are.

Any chance anybody has done this and remembers? I do have mine set up just like their diagram - fixed part of the ram is toward the passenger side (on track bar mount) and telescoping end of the ram points towards driver's side.

Thanks a lot and happy labor day!

 

The routing of hookup is completely relative to the orientation of the cylinder. It's not very clearly defined because the position of the cylinder will dictate how those hoses should be routed.

Best way to figure this out would be to mount your steering ram to the axle side only. Leaving your ram free from how you will be securing it to your steering setup. Run your hlines to the ram and fill the system up with fluid and turn the wheel. If the ram is following your steering then the hoses are setup correctly. If your rams travels opposite the steering direction then reverse the mounting of the hoses to be correct.

 

Agreed. I am doing this now too to my custom built D44. What you will have to do is figure out on the steering box which line goes to a direction of movement. I am using a different steering box, but what I would do is rotate the sector shaft with both ports open and engine not running and see where the oil squirts out and that will go to the side of the cylinder that needs to push to make the wheels move. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes to figure it yhou

 

Hey all - sorry for the delay! Been a wild 24 hours. First thing this morning I called PSC and they confirmed that their diagram is correct, contrary to the experience of several people I've read about on other forums (usually jeep but not XJ). So - I hooked the lines up with the port on the steering box closest to the driver (so closest to the firewall) goes to the driver's side of the ram (assuming that it's installed with the non-moving end bracket welded to the passenger side and the piston arm bracket welded on the passenger side, which mine is.) I got it going and it is a SUBSTANTIAL improvement, although not perfect; my guess is there's still some air in the system because it's still pretty hard to move even my 35s on pavement when stopped, so when I have time in a few days I'll put her back on stands and cycle from lock to lock a million times.

Sure appreciate all the good advice here - I'm far from the first person to do this and it's really good to hear what others have done! Shsydu, I can't thank you and others enough for encouraging me to build this thing; as soon as I have this straightened out I'm going to post in my original thread, where I basically said hey, I just spend $2500 on an XJ, am I good to go? Only to find that since it was nearly stock I needed an ungodly amount of work done to make it liveable, and this is pretty much the last step (though I fully understand it is NEVER done.)

I had a moment during the hose install that wasn't funny at the time but is now. I put together the hi-pressure hoses to go from the box to the ram and got those installed without spilling too much of the fluid, which is the Swepco 715 that they call for which is about a billion bucks a quart. But, after bleeding the system some, I discovered that the hose from the pump to the box was leaking at the box end, which it hadn't before, but maybe adding the ram put more pressure on it. I realized that as soon as I disconnected it, it would start leaking and there was nothing I could do - and of course there was hardly any room for a wrench in there and a ton of hoses in the way. I finally got it off with a short wrench and it started leaking everywhere, so I got the hose fixed and tried to get it back on, totally covered in really slippery oil, and I could NOT get it to thread correctly. Of course the lower radiator hose was right there making my life miserable and keeping me from seeing what I was doing. I FINALLY got it threaded and tightened it down and only lost about a quart!