Power steering

With a lockrite locker in the front the steering has always been heavy . I normally get around this by putting it into 2wd low , with the locker in the rear it goes most places ok , and then put it back into 4wd for the tricky stuff . Well after a day out in an endurance competition where I did not have time to flick in and out i was stuffed and it was time to do something about it . Removing the locker was an option but not the best one at the time , so power steering it was . After talking to a few rally friends they all said the toyota was the easiest to do . So off to the wreckers I got looking at what will work .

 I find several Crowns that seem ok but the pump mounted on the wrong side for me , after a while I found what I was looking for , an '81 Celica with all the bits in the right place . By luck I came across a Suzuki swift that had air conditioning , it was a 1.0 ltr ( g10a ) but all the stuff bolts on the g series anyway . This gave me the dual belt crank pulley and a tensioner pulley , cool my main problem solved .

The steering boxes are very similar in size and mounting so it was not as hard as I imagined it to be . Once the old box was out i held the toyota box in for fit . It needed to be packed off the frame by about 3/8th of an inch which was perfect and also the steering shaft bolted right up even using the same bolts , this was too good to be true . I made a 3/8th plate and drilled off the existing chassis holes and tack welded (so they don't spin when doing them up ) in some counter sunk bolts . I then marked out the bolt patern for the toyota steering box , drilled them and did the same with the bolts . 

As I have a standard front end I needed a way to go from the toyota steering box to the suzuki steering link . The toyota pitman arm is longer than the suzuki one so I couldn't use that as it would foul the axle . Off to the engineers down the road and he said just join the two together . I said WHAT !!! But he said he could weld them back together just as strong as they were , since this is an off road only zuk I said ok . I look at it before and after each outing and it seems ok , hence it is painted bright red , to remind me to look at it . For some reason I have lost the photo's of the pump mounting on the engine , but this was straight forward with the pulleys etc off the swift and a small change to the air conditioning mounts and the pump was in place . As the old hoses did not fit any more a quick call to the hose doctor and I had new lines made up .

Once it was all hooked up , topped up the fluid and bleed the system and all was go . None of the secondhand parts I brought leaked , as I feared as they had been sitting for a while and the steering was finger light . I is easy to drive all day now , it is amazing what a difference it makes . The only trouble at the moment is when at idle and you turn the wheel the pump can stall the motor . On a good running engine I doubt that this would be a problem as mine is nakered and very neglected poor we thing . Just something else that needs sorting out .