I finally installed my RRO Toyota power steering kit. First a little background. I ordered the kit in January of 2004 and it sat in the box because I could not find a 78-81 Celica box the kit called for in the local yards. Others wanted over $400 for a rebuilt box I finally found a rebuilt box that I ended up paying $150 for. Here are the parts:

Included in the kit was a bracket for the box, bracket for the pump, bracket for the tensioner pulley, a bracket for the reservoir, a pitman arm, a bag of bolts etc and one entire page of instructions
The first step was the removal of the stock box and install of the adapter bracket for the new box. The Toyota box has three mounting holes like the Zuk box, however they are not in the same location for installation on the frame in the stock location. The bracket is bolted to the frame with two long bolts in the factory locations. Then the Toyota box is mounted using one extra long bolt in a factory location with the two remaining holes in the box mounting to threaded holes in the adapter bracket.

Next is attaching the box to the steering shaft. The Diameter of the splines on the Toyota box are much larger than on the Zuk. I used a coupler from a 86 Toyota truck to attach to the Zuk steering shaft. The steering shaft was then about four inches too long The shaft is designed to collapse, so I removed the two sheer pins which cured the problem.

Next was the bracket for the tensioner pulley. It attaches to the bottom of the block using three bolts. The bracket did not fit due to the fact I have a heavy duty oil pump. I ended up enlarging two of the holes of the bracket on the side of the block and then ran washers

Next was the pump. The pump bracket mounted to two holes in the side of the head. The pump called for in the kit that I located ended up presenting new issues Mounted one way the high pressure and low pressure lines ran directly toward the motor. When I 180ed it, the lines were on the underside of the pump and not easily seen I returned the pump and picked up another model for the same 78 to 81 models. The diameter of the pump was larger, so again more mods After the grinder removed a little metal, it fits

The final bracket for the reservoir was never used. I used a reservoir from a another 86 Toyota truck which mounted on the fenderwell just like the RRO bracket.
Two more stops and I'm done, a new belt  and a/c pulley and "The Hose Man" who fabbed all of the fittings and made things nice
And the final result. It works great. One fingering the 35s in the garage is nice
I want to thank my friend Darrin  aka "Wild" who imaginered all of the mods and cut a few knuckles along the way.   Well, I would post pics of the maiden run, but SoCal is in the middle of a a rain storm, so thats it for now.  

Shoyrtt, So cal?   I live in murrieta. we should all go wheeling together.



kevin

Shoyrtt, So cal?   I live in murrieta. we should all go wheeling together.



kevin

SoCal! (about 40 minutes north of you). Wheeling always sounds good FYI: Wayne aka "Zukizzy" is your neighbor down in Murrieta. Let us know what your plans are.  

Is it legal to have a rig that's that clean???

It gets dirty some times.

still... my truck gets dirtyer from driving 5 mins down the hyway.. id love to have a truck that clean... but winter around here they salt the roads all the time.. and of cource I wheel like twice a week on average ... mucky logging roads in the LJ suck though, I usually get dirtyer on the loggin roads then the trails lol... wish i had some power steerin !!! lucky ass, arm strong steering gets tiring

It gets dirty some times.

dirty  i have never seen my tracker that clean!

stu

I just finished my power steering install from Rocky Road Outfitters. Let me just say I am glad it's done and will be giving it a thorough off road test this weekend.

Don't let me kid you this is a tough job and takes some time. The absolute hardest thing is finding all the necessary parts to complete the project because this is all pre 1980 stuff most junkyards don't have it. I think RRO should update this kit for some new parts.

Here's the part list i needed:
1. Steering box - found from online junk yard
2. Rag Joint - bought new online from Toyota (you need this because the spindle on the Toyota steering box is larger than the sammy one
3. Power steering pump - bought rebuilt from Oriellys
4. Reservoir - anything you can find from junk yard mine came off a 2003 Camry
5. Hydraulic Plumbing lines and fittings - I used brass plumbing fittings from the hardware store (Westlakes) the lines came from Oriellys
6. Additional bolt, washers, nuts etc not provided
7. Belt to power the pump - Oriellys

After about a month of procuring parts I was ready to put it all together. Mounting the steering box was tough because it just didn't line up perfectly with the new bracket, but I finally got it. The rag joint fit extra snug as well. Mounting the brackets (once I figured out what was what) wasn't too bad. Plumbing up the power steering was a crap shot.

Plumbing....
As you may know, the fluid goes from the Reservoir to the Pump, to the Steering box, and back to the Reservoir making a complete circuit. What was difficult was trying to figure out where the hi pressure line from the pump went. I new it went to the steering box but didn't know what port. One port is hi-pressure input the other is the low pressure return. So i guessed. On my steering box there is one port that looks like it goes into the main area (thicker area where the gears would be) and another off just to the side of that. The one off to the side is the hi-pressure. I guessed wrong and blew a line on my initial test. After I reversed the lines she worked great.

If you don't know anything about hydraulics they produce alot of pressure, up to 5000psi, so make sure your hi-pressure line from the pump to the steering box is build for that. The other lines are not so sensitive.(I didn't know any of this before I started this project)

After working through all of that (blew some lines a time or two making a huge mess) everything seems to work. The only thing I'm not sure about is the hydraulic fittings, and I'm concerned the lines may blow off the fittings. If so I will have to take it to a professional to get them done correctly.

I'll let you know what i think after the field test this weekend, but I'm sure I'll love it!!!!

Well I survived my initial test. I didn't have any lines blow but i did have some power steering fluid leak. So I took it home drained it all out, put some new thread tape on the fittings and tightened them down. Took my rig out again the following weekend and had pretty good luck, no major leaks or blown lines. But at the end of the day the bracket holding my transfer case broke so i guess i will be doing some welding or fabricating a new bracket.

Sometimes my sammi feels like a helicopter, 3 hours of use and 20 hours of maintenance.

Sometimes my sammi feels like a helicopter, 3 hours of use and 20 hours of maintenance.

  Nice! Up here in the road salt state(Minnesota) its 3 months of wheeling, 9 months to repair rust and broken parts(which kinda go hand in hand).

Yea, they go like that for a while. 

Make sure you put something in to strengthen the long mount, otherwise it will twist up.  On my old SJ we welded in a piece of angle iron to make sure it wouldn't be able to bend.  For the t-case mounts we used the unbreakable ones from Rocky Road.  But someone else used engine mounts from a Polaris that looked great.  I'm not a fan of the brass mounts as they tend to transfer a lot of noise to the frame and I think there should be some give, but they don't break.