Work on this project has been going extremely slow lately with much of my time being taken up by my many other endeavors but I did manage to get some new steering parts along with beginning to install them. With help from a couple greatly appreciated donations I was able to order a PSC Orbital Steering valve, PSC 13 inch Steering Column and quick release, PSC Steering valve mounting bracket, and a Grant Formula 1 Steering wheel, the prices of these can all be seen on the
budget page. The last part I will need to get to complete the steering is an 8 inch hydraulic ram along with all the hoses and fittings.
I decided to go with a PSC steering setup instead of competing brands such as Trail Gear because after scouring many of the offroad forums and reviews of each companies products I found an overwhelming majority saying PSC was much better and higher quality that any of its competitors. There was also many threads in forums on
pirate4x4.com that revealed problems with the Trail Gear orbital steering valve leaking and also turning up to a quarter of a turn with absolutely no response to the wheel which and any amount of speed could lead to huge problems. Thus I concluded the PSC setup was well worth the few more dollars I had to spend.
I haven't had much time recently to work on actually mounting these new parts but I did get a chance to add in some more frame support members and a crosspiece that the "dashboard" will be made off of and the steering orbital valve will be mounted to.
I also picked up a new universal 19 by 25 inch radiator with two 12 inch cooling fans off of craigslist for $80, I know it doesn't really have anything to do with the "New Steering Parts" but I thought it was worth mentioning. This radiator will both fit on my rig and perform much better that an old bulky stock radiator out of the truck I pulled the engine from would.
