mat in tn Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Depends on what you do with it. By changing the length you can essentially increase or decrease Ackerman. You say "touchy", but the steering box is x turns lock to lock regardless... The pump can't change how many times you turn the wheel (and by extension, how much a small deflection in the wheel causes the truck to turn) This is basic math and the pump has nothing to do with it. The assist the pump gives will make the wheel lighter or heavier. If your truck is "touchy" bring it back to the alignment shop and tell them to do it right this time. 😠another thing that can make a steering wheel feel "touchy" is if someone over tightened the steering gear. often an adjustment gets adjusted unnecessarily. too tight and the wedge-shaped output shaft pushes the drum against the off side of the housing bore creating drag. this causes the wheel to feel less responsive to turns or return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essmaker Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 another thing that can make a steering wheel feel "touchy" is if someone over tightened the steering gear. often an adjustment gets adjusted unnecessarily. too tight and the wedge-shaped output shaft pushes the drum against the off side of the housing bore creating drag. this causes the wheel to feel less responsive to turns or return. The ol girl breathed fire again for the first time in years!! Figured I would crank it over some this morning to get the fresh gas pumped through the new lines. Well, she decided to start and then began my scramble. Being i had drained the torque converter and changed the fluid and filter, i knew it would need a few pints. Along with that the power steering having all new lines was going to need a drink. So with a timing light in one hand and fluids in another, she actually just sat there and purred. All fluids topped off, timing set and cooling system opened up and filled. First time out of the barn under its own power in a long while! Now on to replacing the interior and finding a body shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 The ol girl breathed fire again for the first time in years!! Figured I would crank it over some this morning to get the fresh gas pumped through the new lines. Well, she decided to start and then began my scramble. Being i had drained the torque converter and changed the fluid and filter, i knew it would need a few pints. Along with that the power steering having all new lines was going to need a drink. So with a timing light in one hand and fluids in another, she actually just sat there and purred. All fluids topped off, timing set and cooling system opened up and filled. First time out of the barn under its own power in a long while! Now on to replacing the interior and finding a body shop. Wonderfulllllll!!!! Congratulations! That is such a good feeling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 I have used surge brakes quite a bit (my boat trailer, everything I've rented from U-Haul) and I agree that they have their place. But I don't think that place is a 10,000 lb car hauler. The moving parts of the hitch tend to make for a more clunky setup, and I'd rather have 10,000 lbs connected more solidly. Also they require a fair bit of maintenance to keep them moving smoothly (one U-Haul in particular I had to dump the clutch in 1st gear to get the brakes to release after any moderate to hard stop). But also they have no way to apply just the trailer brakes from the vehicle. That's a valuable tool to stop sway that I don't want to give up with a heavy trailer that can be loaded a lot of different ways. And I've never had trouble getting even cheap brake controllers dialed in (as long as I understood the controls). I will print out this manual and keep a copy in the truck! (next post on the Dodge) (follow-up on the brake controller) Last weekend I realized that the right rear disk brake on the Dodge was eating itself. I didn't want to take the time to fix it myself without being able to drive Pluto while the Dodge was down (Pluto's parked until we get enough rain to wash the last of the salt off the roads, which won't be until after they put the last of the salt on the roads). So I took it in for a rear wheel brake job. But all of the debris off the brake had deposited itself on the polished aluminum wheel, leaving it coated with a pretty thick layer of iron oxide (aka "rust"). I washed it off the best I could, but it was still pretty nasty. This picture doesn't really do justice to how bad it looked after washing, but you can see the dark brown coating around the outer rim (the part to the left of the rag I had already started to polish) and inside the slots, as well as some on the spokes (the spokes looked worse in real life) So I took some "polishing compound" (aka "toothpaste") and a toothbrush and started scrubbing. I'm not done with the wheel, but I'm done! The outer rim cleaned up pretty well, and the spokes look great now! (in this picture the three spokes that don't look shiny are because you see the reflection of some bushes in them). I started trying to clean the slots, but the back and outside of the slots have it caked on a lot harder. I circled in red the one back side of a slot that I cleaned. It's pretty good, but that's as far as I got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Last weekend I realized that the right rear disk brake on the Dodge was eating itself. I didn't want to take the time to fix it myself without being able to drive Pluto while the Dodge was down (Pluto's parked until we get enough rain to wash the last of the salt off the roads, which won't be until after they put the last of the salt on the roads). So I took it in for a rear wheel brake job. But all of the debris off the brake had deposited itself on the polished aluminum wheel, leaving it coated with a pretty thick layer of iron oxide (aka "rust"). I washed it off the best I could, but it was still pretty nasty. This picture doesn't really do justice to how bad it looked after washing, but you can see the dark brown coating around the outer rim (the part to the left of the rag I had already started to polish) and inside the slots, as well as some on the spokes (the spokes looked worse in real life) So I took some "polishing compound" (aka "toothpaste") and a toothbrush and started scrubbing. I'm not done with the wheel, but I'm done! The outer rim cleaned up pretty well, and the spokes look great now! (in this picture the three spokes that don't look shiny are because you see the reflection of some bushes in them). I started trying to clean the slots, but the back and outside of the slots have it caked on a lot harder. I circled in red the one back side of a slot that I cleaned. It's pretty good, but that's as far as I got. Oxalic acid (wood bleach) will eliminate all traces of 'rust'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 Last weekend I realized that the right rear disk brake on the Dodge was eating itself. I didn't want to take the time to fix it myself without being able to drive Pluto while the Dodge was down (Pluto's parked until we get enough rain to wash the last of the salt off the roads, which won't be until after they put the last of the salt on the roads). So I took it in for a rear wheel brake job. But all of the debris off the brake had deposited itself on the polished aluminum wheel, leaving it coated with a pretty thick layer of iron oxide (aka "rust"). I washed it off the best I could, but it was still pretty nasty. This picture doesn't really do justice to how bad it looked after washing, but you can see the dark brown coating around the outer rim (the part to the left of the rag I had already started to polish) and inside the slots, as well as some on the spokes (the spokes looked worse in real life) So I took some "polishing compound" (aka "toothpaste") and a toothbrush and started scrubbing. I'm not done with the wheel, but I'm done! The outer rim cleaned up pretty well, and the spokes look great now! (in this picture the three spokes that don't look shiny are because you see the reflection of some bushes in them). I started trying to clean the slots, but the back and outside of the slots have it caked on a lot harder. I circled in red the one back side of a slot that I cleaned. It's pretty good, but that's as far as I got. Man, that looks like WORK! But you are making progress and, as Jim says, progress is good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Oxalic acid (wood bleach) will eliminate all traces of 'rust'... Will oxalic acid hurt the clear-coated polished aluminum surface? And where might I find that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBrother-84 Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 The ol girl breathed fire again for the first time in years!! Super, what a feeling! Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBrother-84 Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 I'm not done with the wheel, but I'm done! Man, what a job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Will oxalic acid hurt the clear-coated polished aluminum surface? And where might I find that? It doesn't affect aluminum, in my experience. But it turns iron oxide (red) to clear iron oxylate... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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