Starting on the Steering

This evening I started working on the steering, mounting up the orbital valve and steering ram and cleaning up the steering pump getting it ready to install. To mount the PSC orbital valve, steering column and steering wheel I figured out the most comfortable position to have the steering wheel in by sitting down in the seat and positioning it over and over again until I found a spot that I was pleased with. Then I just made a simple mount off of the frame crossmember and welded the orbital valve's mounting braket onto that. I also made up the frame for the dashboard that is going to have an aluminum plate mounted to it holding all of the gauges, buttons, and switches.

For the hydraulic steering ram, I turned the steering assembly all the way to the left as that is the positoin it will be in when the cylinder is fully retracted and then made some simple steel brackets with 3/4 inch holes to bolt it to the rod ends on the cylinder. One of the brakets was welded to the axle and the other to the connecting rod.

My next step with the steering is to find a spot to mount the steering pump that will not interfere with the frame or anything else and then do all the plumbing for it, bleed the system, and test it out.

There is a link to a great forum post on how to set up a hydraulic steering system on the right side of the page, it has helped me a lot in understanding how everything goes together and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is doing this kind of steering.