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Converting the high pressure power steering line to -AN

51K views 89 replies 24 participants last post by  MaddMartigan 
#1 · (Edited)
#39 ·
Ok thanks, was just wondering since the 3.8 and 4.6 have way different pumps.
 
#41 ·
It looks like in Robs and Rods pictures they used a 45 degree bend it's just pointing back towards the firewall some.
 
#44 ·
Yes I do have the ADDCO 1-1/4" front sway bar on there. Will be 45 degree be enough or does it need to come more straight down. Maybe a 33 degree elbow?
 
#48 ·
Theyre pretty damn close, they both end up wrapping around to the passenger side and back to the drivers side, Another mod for the 3.8 cars I was thinking about would be to ditch the puny little cooler located in the fender, and replacing it with the 4.6L power steering cooler.The holes are already there for the 4.6 cooler to get mounted behind the front bumper. I did that when I did the motor swap
 
#49 ·
No kidding??? LOL I did that to his car already. The bad part was a shop broke blueyes' PS cooler and without telling him they tried to cover it up. So as a real fix I just got a v8 version and flipped it around.
 
#50 ·
I'm doing this to my 1991 with the 5.0HO.

A few notes:

It takes more than 11" to reach, due to the high mount power steering pump.

If you're doing this, don't chop up the return hose - that's where the cooler is :facepalm:

Also, it looks like a 90* fitting on the pump for the high pressure side is better than the 45* due to the fit.

I'm running the hoses up against the shock tower in order to clear the exhaust headers/manifolds.

I'm also using one of those too-small transmission coolers for my PS cooler. It ought to be, if anything, too big :D

RwP
 
#51 ·
Due to how the 5.0HO is laid out, it uses some slightly different parts.

After doing mine, I can say that you CAN use a pair of 90 degree fittings.

I used a 90 at the rack and a 45 at the pump - which fits, and works well, but a pair of 90s would be better.

I used one of these at the rack for a new elbow, one of these for the AN-6 adapter, and one of these at the pump. Two of the first would fit. I used a pair of these for the adapters. I used 24" of hose, but as the pics below show, something more like 16" would fit better (straight up and down).

I ran it in the middle of the A/C manifold so as to help keep it from shaking into the manifolds, but I may have been paranoid about that.

RwP

Pics below:

45* fitting:


90* fitting:


AN-6 adapter:


Hoses out of back of pump (from top):
 
#83 ·
OK, I'm looking at doing this. I'm confused a bit by your list. Do you need this:
1 ea. OMEGA 1502 Steering Pressure Hose
2 ea. Russell AN to Metric Adapter Fittings 670530 -6AN
1 ea. ~18-24" -6AN hose with 90 degree connectors

or this:

2 ea. OMEGA 1502 Steering Pressure Hose
2 ea. Russell AN to Metric Adapter Fittings 670530 -6AN
1 ea. ~18-24" -6AN hose with 90 degree connectors

The pictures don't seem to line up with the second one.
 
#53 · (Edited)
I appreciate all of the comments in this thread, they have helped to give me a clearer idea of what to do.

There was an old pump on my toolbox to test and make sure all will be well with the blue (Russel) fitting. I took some time to study how it fits into the pump. Close study of the pump shows two ports cut into the threaded area of approximately the same depth relative to the threads. One goes to the EVO Solenoid and the other apparently comes from the pump rotor and is the output going to our new hose. After doing some measurements I used a 7/8" socket to hold the fitting and ground off 0.130" from it. The edge of the socket served as a guide to make a square cut. I wouldn't remove much more of the threads, the cut I made has the fitting going in at a similar depth to the OEM fitting. A little clean up with a small file and some Brake Cleaner and it's good to go.
After installing the new fitting in the test pump and tightening it up I could inspect the installation through the EVO hole and see that the port(s) is/are not blocked.
Use a nylon or copper washer between the blue fitting and the pump. Don't use any kind of rubber "O" Ring unless you want the front of your engine washed off with Mercon V like mine was.

I had a great deal of trouble R&Ring the pulley. It's still not on all the way, and I'm still working out the new placement of the Oil Pressure Sender Unit.

Now it's all together and no P/S leaks. But I get to go back under and do it all again because the Oil Filter Adapter is leaking (sigh). Taking a few days off.
 
#55 · (Edited)
huh, i tried this a while back and it was awful. i had the same issues a lot are describing with the fitting bottoming out in the pump, making its squeal and burn the mercV brown in 30miles...

afterwords i couldn't get the m14's to seal worth a dang, and after fighting with it, and taking the line off the rack elbow more times then i could count trying to reseal the compression fittings, i just gave up and put the gates OEM style hose on and called it a day....

now that leaks at the pump a bit as well... leaving a decent amount of fluid on the driver side cat and down the bottom of the car.

i also ran into this...


love my oil guage mod, would recommend it to anyone. but this is just something to expect if you try and do both.

Now it's all together and no P/S leaks. But I get to go back under and do it all again because the Oil Filter Adapter is leaking (sigh). Taking a few days off.
you can also see MY oil filter adapter gasket was leaking slightly their on the filter... fixed that a while back, after i got all this stuff done and the pump back in -_- so your are not alone where that is concerned

kind of making me want to try it again... i had the thought that maybe the fitting could be cut down a bit, it had this weird protuberance on it with an O-ring that i didn't remember seeing in the writeup...
 
#54 ·
Note. When installing the Russel fitting at the steering pump elbow, be $PROFANITY sure that you get it more than finger tight.

And if you decide to use a built hose, on the 5.0HO - no, 14" is NOT long enough as long as you want an oil filter on the motor.

Color me "Feel Stupid"

RwP
 
#56 ·
The fitting with the O ring at the end is the wrong one. The correct one seals with a teflon O-ring at the collar like the OE line. I updated the article some time ago with the new part number. The original draft had the same style fitting you used (with the small O-ring at the end) and is what I originally used with similar leakage issues.

You might still need to cut down the threads a bit with the new adapters since our pumps have orifices in the center of the threads though.

I didn't realize the oil gauge mod sender would interfere like that. Looks like an easy fix though. Splice in a flat connector with a nut
 
#57 ·
I took out the plug on the bottom of the Oil Filter Adapter and used a short nipple and an elbow to move the sender completely out of the way. Also had to extend the wire.
It still leaks a drop of oil but I think that's the drain plug. The last time I looked the P/S hose was dry.
 
#58 ·
I used a 90 degree elbow and some solder andheat shrink to extend the wire form the oil pressure sender. I too did the variable pressure sender mod and the high pressure line mod so I know what IM talking about making clearances. Putting on a flat connector actually isnt going to cut it LOL, you need like 1 mm more room than that. I know cause I tried. Im actually getting ready to swap in a used OEM power steering pump because the autozone units just make too much damn noise and Im sure my EVO isnt working properly. Im also adding bigger power steering cooler and bending up hardline for it. So Ill definitely be taking pictures and giving a details tour on that.
 
#59 ·
For those of us that have a leaky pump elbow fitting, but don't want to drop the rack to install the other end of this mod:

How about hacksawing the line before the power steering pump elbow and somehow adapting the line to connect to only the pump side of this mod?

I don't know much about adapting high pressure lines to work without leaking. Could someone more knowledgeable show how this could be done?
 
#60 ·
I added this to the main article but figured I'd post it here as well.

A bit of tweaking is necessary for the Russell Performance 670530 - Russell AN to Metric Adapter Fittings. There's an EVO(presumably) related orifice drilled through the center of the threads in the power steering pump that these fittings will obstruct. The solution to this is to grind approximately 3/16" off the metric end of the fitting to prevent blockage.




Here's the factory fitting vs the Russel. You can see how much further the threads extend on the adapter:



I used tape as a marker for the grinder - go slowly, since the fitting is aluminum the grinder will cut through it like butter:



Post grinding, pull the tape off and clean it up(depending on the tape you used the heat from the grinder may have left tape residue)



Use 400 grit sandpaper on the edges to make sure there's no loose material and ensure it will thread into the pump without cross threading.



Note* I installed the dorman seal prior to grinding, I didn't want to risk it being damaged by slipping it over a rougher ground surface. If you do this be sure you mask the WHOLE fitting before grinding to prevent it getting contaminated by bits of aluminum.

 
#61 ·
I'll share my experiences with this mod.

I did this mod on both my 98 MarkVIII, and my 90 SC. The MarkVIII had a much shorter hose due to the placement of the power steering pump, and it worked great at first, but periodically it would loosen up and start leaking, and I could never figure out why.

My SC had a power steering leak from the day I got it. I was a little hesitant to do this mod due to my previous experience with the Lincoln, but after replacing the line with the stock aftermarket, the fittings on the rack, the return line, blowing out the aftermarket pressure line, and deleting the power steering cooler cause that was leaking, I went with this. After the install, everything was great for about 2 weeks, then it started leaking again. I tightened the line up again, and basically every 2 weeks it would loosen up and start leaking again, and then eventually the braided stainless line itself blew out. What I found was happening was that once the line is tightened to the adapter fittings, there is no way for it to swivel, and the vibration and twisting of the motor would actually twist the line and loosen the adapter fitting out of the rack, causing a leak. I was so frustrated with this leak that I was to the point of converting the car to manual steering, but before I did, I decided to take this whole assembly to a local hose shop and get their input. They made up a regular rubber hose for me to replace the braided stainless one, and gave me some steel adapter fittings that seal with rubber O-rings instead of the teflon washer. Also, the fittings on the new line still allow it to swivel even when it is tightened up on the fitting. Total cost for the line and 2 fittings was $34, it installed the same as the braided stainless line, and now I finally have no power steering leak. The Lincoln is currently off the road, but before it goes back on the road, it will be getting the braided stainless line removed and replaced with another rubber line just like the one I got for the SC.
 
#62 ·
Woah I knew you were having issues with the SCs power steering but damn! I'm surprised to hear you blew out the braided hose since the high pressure rated ones are used for brake hoses as well. I here you on the swivel, it seems to only be there to allow it to face one direction while you tighten in another, once it's tight it's stuck.

I bet you're right about the movement of the motor and the vibration being a big contributing cause, especially on the SC since the V6 is inherently rougher. My experience was that the adapter fitting itself was loosening up from the pump with the hose fitting still fully seated, granted my double nylon washer/spacer treatment didn't exactly help but what happened with mine was the sway bar would slightly nudge the hose and twist the 45* fitting lefty/loosey occasionally - had I known the SC/Addco sway bars were different at the time I probably would have actually used a 90* at the pump and the 45* on the rack so the line would go OVER the bar rather than under - The rack side always stayed in place though but then again I left the factory elbow in place with an adapter fitting on it, and I think the factory elbow actually does use an O-Ring to the rack rather than the teflon washer as well, so it makes sense that's what the shop set up for you.
 
#63 ·
My MarkVIII always loosened at the pump side, and the SC always loosened at the rack side, and yes just like you, the adapter fitting loosened up, but the AN side to the line stayed tight. I also have the factory fittings in the rack with the adapter screwed into that. The braided line blowing, I don't know if it was a production flaw, or if it was rubbing on something while driving, or what, but it popped a hole right in the side! I still have it in the garage, so I'll snap a pic of it when I get home.
 
#69 ·
Well I just found out something irritating, after filling the system and bleeding, the leak I had always been under the impression was coming from the old mismatched adapter fittings, may in reality have been coming from the pump shaft seal upon closer inspection. I thought it was odd that there was already a drip coming from the pressure line since I didn't even start the engine yet, and low and behold a trail of PS fluid behind the pulley, a trail that instantly comes back after wiping it down :mad:


So about that manual steering... :D
 
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