| Putting Power Steering on a Base Package Comanche |
| Anyone who has driven a MJ without power steering knows that it�s a pain. esspesaly if you do alot of driving around the city. My job requires a lot of driving period, around city and rural, plus all the other driving I do. Well after a week of tring strong armin it I figured that it was time for a little help via some hydrulic assist, Plus we�re getting this thing ready to do some towing soon anyway and power steering would certainly do it�s part in helping out in that aspect. So after much studying I started gathering the parts I needed to begin, So if your Thinking of doing this mod to your Comanche or Cherokee I hope you find this information very useful. |
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| I started by finding all the parts I needed plus a couple that I figured would come in handy. I found a power steering box off of a Cherokee, and I went to a junkyard and found a pump that would acsept a serp. belt and a sector shaft because usually without power steering the u-joints in the shaft wear quite bad over time, and mine were in this state as well. Make sure you have the right hoses........well make sure you have hoses, mine aren�t �the right� hoses but they work non the less. Then I when to Canadian Tire and picked up a new serpintine belt and a big jug of power steering fluid and that�s really all you need, EXCEPT make sure you ethier get ALL the nuts and bolts with the pump or you have metric nuts and bolts handy to you. This is important if you want to get the job done. |
| I started by taking off the old pulley, the new pump should be able to fit right in there, but eye it up and make sure. I took the pulley off to give me more room the work on the other things. The box was the next thing to come out, loosen and take out the bolt that holds the sector shaft to the box. You�ll now probably have to jack up your jeep and take off the driver�s tire. It will make it easier to get at the 3 bolts that hold the box to the frame, they are 5/8 and are just behind the inner fender cowl the one closest to the front is the hardest to get at, but I broke mine so it came great;) Before you loosen all the box bolts you may want to think of popping off the pitman arm, I didn�t go this route because the box I had to replace it had the pitman arm on it so I just dropped the drag link. Once that was done then I backed the bolts the rest of the way out and fished the box out. Then I got in around all the mess at the top of the sector shaft and took that bolt out and hammered the old sector shaft off. |
| Now comes the fun. Where I had the new sector shaft I worked the top part on first. For some reason the new sector shaft took different bolts than the old one and the bolts didn�t come with it so I had to find new bolts (minor problem). Then I slide the new power steering box up into place, I broke the spacer that fits between the box and the frame so I just used nuts as spacers until I get some proper ones made up, it�s good if you have someone around to help you with lining up the new pump with your bolts you can do it on you own and I got a couple of them started but my father help line up the last one for me, this was the only part of the swap that you would really need anyone if you find yourself in a jam. Around the same time that I was lining up the bolts to the box I started lining up the bottom of the sector shaft and working it in as I mounted the box in place. Once the box and sector shaft were in place I figured now would be a good time to fit my hoses on the box, you may find this easier with the box off of the frame but I didn�t find it to matter. |
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| Next comes the pump, I got the pump out of a �92 Cherokee I believe. All the bolts matched up to the old bracket but the studs in the back of the pump were not long enough because the pump needed to be shimmed out about a 1/2� in order for the Pump pulley to line up with the rest of the pulleys, (THESE STUDS ARE METRIC) I took out the studs and used longer bolts in order to add the spacers. After the pump was all squared away and lined up I routed and connected the hoses to the pump. After every thing looks good I put my old belt on to |
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| make sure everything was working right before I slapped the new belt on there, and I did have to shim the pump out a bit more and then I though the new belt on. Fill the pump with fluid and cycle the wheel lock to lock a couple of times, check you fluid. Then start up the engine and turn the wheel lock to lock again a couple times and add fluid as required. I then took it out to the nearest parking lot and did a couple figure 8�s to get all the air out. I�ve been driving it for a couple days and I love having power steering, I truck rides like a Cadillac! There are a few minor problems like the air breather tube partially covers the pump but that will be fine till I upgrade that to a K&N tube and filter. Not all the air is out of the system yet, which isn�t a huge problem, it�s slowly working it�s way out, and my steering wheel is upside down so you may what to keep you eye on that if you this mod. Another foot note is that you may find that your blinkers don't shut off on their own all the time. This is because the manual steering box has a 6:1 turning ratio were the powersteering box has a 3.5:1 ratio. So it take more turns of the wheel to kick the switch off. You could just throw in a steering colum from a XJ or MJ with power steering and hey why not tilt?! or you can live with it like I've done til that parts truck comes along! Note: I�ve been told if you have A/C you may have to flip the water pump in order for the pulleys to all function properly Another Note: This is for reference only. |