I am getting tired of this. At least this time it didn't happen at the starting line at the racetrack :( I've been meaning to give my underhood a nice oiled polish though :punchballs:
Ok, so I bought an AGR "performance" pump and it blew the front seal out at the track (how does a seal get ejected out onto the shaft anyway??). I got an OEM replacement and it lasted a couple of years - woohoo :mad: This time it blew when doing a 4th gear WOT blast. They always blow when I let off after a WOT blast. I think it may be that I have the blower on there putting a heavy load on the pump bearing combined with the fact that I had the belt tensioner too loose both times - and it kicks back wicked bad when the tension is let off the S/C. I think the tensioner actually binds for a split-second as it goes past the point of no return toward the alternator - but I'm not sure why this would kill just the PS pump. I checked the pulley alignment - it is within 10 thousandths of an inch best I can tell by eye, so that doesn't seem to be it.
Any ideas on this would be appreciated.
I was going to give up and get a manual rack, but I can replace the pump and rack for ~ $120, perhaps starting with an all new system will help. I did flush the system and deair it last time, but who knows - the rack is 20 years old.
Could be a fluid restriction in the rack itself.
I'd say give it one last try and replace both the rack and the pump.
Yep, going to go nab a new pump & rack now...
maybe put a bigger pulley on the Pump.. I can't quite remember what car it is.. but either a 3.8 or some big bodied car has a one inch larger pulley..
I have to offer, I got the pump and all the lines from my car if ya need
just really quick, how good do you think a v-belt set up works on a sepitine 5.0 car?
Almost all 3.8s have the big pulleys.
I'm not sure if it would help in your situation Cougar5.0 but slowing the pump down may help. What RPM are you turning your engine too? I'm guessing you are nearing the 7k RPM mark? Probably way too much for the stock pump.
I only spin the engine to 6k. I have a brick-wall rev-limiter & timing pull that prevent me from going beyond 6100 RPM.
The thing about this time is I didn't even get over 5k RPM. The big difference is I put on a new idler pulley for the blower and I wasn't able to find a belt quite small enough. Since my engine came with a 6.5" crank pulley and I now have a 5.85" crank pulley from a Mustang, I'm really not spinning this thing that hard.
I did go out and nab a new pump, high-pressure line and rack. For $137 (all LLT warranty too) , it's really not much of a gamble. If you count the new control arms & 11" brakes I'm putting on, I'm looking at an entirely new front end - lol. Thanks for the offer Fila, I'm all set now.
I may look into finding a 3.8 pulley at the junk yard since I'm gonna need to rent a pulley puller tool anyway. I hardly ever see any Fox bodies at the junk yard any more though, so it could be a challenge. Anybody got one lying around? lol
Hey Jeremy - I'm dissapointed in you - you usually come up with a much more snarky remark - lmao! ;)
I think the MN12's have the same big pulley.
Yeah? Cool. I want that pulley since I may go back to the 6.5" crank to minimize belt slip and maximize boost :D
The larger 3.8L pulleys are normally used to keep the PS pumps from dying a premature death on cars that see autocross or road courses. The bypass on the pumps can be overwhelmed at high rpms, resulting in the pump giving your engine bay the bukkake (somehow this word isn't in FF's dictionary) treatment.
I'm not certain, but I think your problem might be related to the belt tension. Is this common with other SC setups like yours?
If the SC run off the same pulley as the rest of the accessories?
Yeah, the same belt runs the blower. The PS pump is before the blower in the power path, so I think it is getting abused as my S/C alternately draws 40 HP, then releases when I let off.
I don't know what bukkake means, but I'm still finding little ****ing crevaces in the water pump/brackets with fluid on them. This pump not only blew all the fluid out onto my engine bay, but it then proceded to lock up solid and can NOT be rotated.
I really do think that when I have the tensioner adjusted too loosly, it allows the wild belt backlash that I was trying to describe before. I think it's no coincidence that I had just the day before changed the belt to one that was letting the tensioner unwind all the way during throttle jukes.
Put a 3.8 in the car and then you won't have these problems.LOL.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking - lol. Actually, there was an interesting article in 5.0 or MM&FF about this hot chick who also built her V6 for drag racing. She did N/A, then supercharged, now she's going with twin-turbos! The car was getting pretty fast!
I read that.NICE looking chick,which even makes it better.
yes and on 3.8'. you will slow down the fluid and flow with less rpm's.
on a side not, the Mid 80's LTD's had a smaller pully which makes for easier steering.
Bet she was a bukkake star.
lol, jeremy made me laugh.
Well, I think I know what happened:
(http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e360/Domeskull/DSCF1169.jpg)
Not sure you can tell by looking, but the shaft is offset from center and angled. Good thing I decided to replace the rack & hoses, the pump bearing broke and ground up metal was everywhere turning the fluid a nice black color. Got it together and working BTW.
While I was at it, I decided it would be a good time to change the coltrol arms and convert to 11" brakes. I got three bolts loose and hit them 'till they were an inch from popping out. Guess what happened with the 4th one?
Yep, bolt is frozen solid to the control arm bushing tube. Spun it and beat it 'till I sprained my knee while prying at it with a pry bar. I am really hurting now - my career working on cars may be limited with the problems I'm having now :(.
What's the deal? How to people get these bolts out? Should I just sawz-all it? What a friggin' pain in the arse. Good thing I decided to just loosten and bang the bolt to see if they would come loose - at least I can still move the car around until I get that last bolt loose.
Hey, someone answer me it! :D
Well, my knee is starting to heal up - how do I get the bolt unstuck from the ed bushing sleeve?
Sawzall?
Torch?
Drive the car off of a cliff???
What are you changing the control arms for? Have a set with new bushings? If beating the hell out of it doesn't work.. You can take an air chisel and cut the bushing shell open and dig through the rubber, when you make it to the sleeve turn the bolt around until you find the seam of the sleeve. Pry it open and spray some PB Blaster in there.
Yeah, getting at that seam is the key - thanks for the idea - i think I will be able to do that.
BTW, I have new 2003 Cobra A-arms, Mustang spindles, nice grooved 11" rotors, stainless lines - all waiting to go on as one unit.
So you are sticking with 4 lug to keep the turbines and drag wheels?
Yeah, gold turbines and drag wheels - lots of $$ tied up there already. I did find out that the rumors about the studs that Moser ships with their axles are true. Can you imagine shipping soft studs with 31 spline axles - it makes no sense! Lucky when I used just the skinnies one time they bagged me for the short studs - when I went to change the rears they were ALL nicely bent due to launching at the track on the turbines with 28" M/T drag radials!! Lucky I didn't loose a friggin' wheel!
On another note, I was able to nab a 6.75" PS pulley at the bone yard today (stock is 5.75"). I was relieved that it had the right offset as he had pulled the pump off the car and I had no idea what model it came from - though I was pretty sure it was good due to using the identical pump and the "E2..." part number. Cleaning and painting it now - woohoo! I was running a 1.02 ratio which was good, I had issues with the 0.76 ratio the underdrive crank pulley gave me, but I think this 0.86 ratio will be a good compromise. The stock crank/PS pulley ratio is 1.13 - Yikes! Talk about not made to be revved. Perhaps they were trying to compensate for the "difficult" 15:1 rack ratio on these cars - who knows.
On a third note - I'm still smashing the living @#$@ out of that one A-arm bolt - it just won't budge. I have jammed an ice-pick into the seam and sprayed a ton of rust eater in there - but so far no luck. I may end up slipping a metal cutting sawz-all blade in either side and cutting the bolt - I ruined the nut/bolt anyway by smashing it with a mini-sledge about 100 times :hick: . Did I say that I'm getting too old for this ?? :punchballs:
Unless you get over-rev the pump or run it so slowly that you exceed the flow rate necessary to keep the specified regulated pressure - pulley size has no effect on steering effort.
Steering effort is mainly a combination of pump pressure and steering rack valve/torsion bar. Once the pump has reached its regulated pressure, it bypasses the excess pressure. 700 or 4000 shaft rpm will result in the same steering effort- given the previous caveats.
Righteous Steering Tech (http://"http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14991")