I'm not familiar with JK stuff, but it looks like you moved the tie rod from the 'top' the knuckle to below. I assume this is to make clearance for the ram. The flip kits I see go the other way, to move the TR up. Interesting.
Do you hope the power steering fluid temps to drop off-road/aired-down since the system isn't struggling any more?
Justin, the tie rod is actually in the stock location, I moved the drag link from an under the knuckle mounting style to over the knuckle so it drops down into the knuckle. This was two-fold, first to create enough clearance for the hydraulic ram and secondly to flatten out the drag link. The cutoff seems to be around the 4" of lift point where the drag link is at a bit of an angle and can induce some bumpsteer into the steering so by moving the drag link to the top mounting position it flattens the angle out as well as creates just enough clearance for a hydraulic cylinder.
As for fluid temps, the hydraulic assist alone would allow the system to work easier and thus reduce temps but I already had a Derale heat sink style cooler so I wanted to keep it and just relocated it further away from my drag link. This cooler will just provide a little extra cooling for the steering system.
The PSC gearbox I had installed worked much better than the OEM gearbox as far as turning my tires when aired down off-road although still pretty stiff with the front axle locked but I don't lock my front axle all that much. I purchased the gearbox earlier in the year knowing I would be installing the LS V8 sometime within the year or two but what I didn't realize was that the first generation of PSC gearbox was in fact compatible with the LS V8 swap, but the second generation however was not. I did not find this out until after I had the PSC Big Bore gearbox installed for several months and was collecting parts and pieces for my engine swap when I realized they drastically changed the size of the gearbox from gen I to gen II.
My only options at that time were use GM accessories rather than my OEM Jeep accessories which I wanted to keep for ease of swap as well as keep my smart charging through the TIPM with the OEM alternator as well as keep the Jeep A/C compressor and power steering pump. The GM A/C compressor mounts on the other side which was an option but again, I want to stay with the Jeep compressor and other accessories. My real only option was to reinstall the factory power steering gearbox but I worried about the small sector shaft (which was the #1 reason I installed the bigger gearbox to begin with). To combat the 37" tires I will be running I figured I may as well go hydro-assist to alleviate the strain on the factory gearbox.
Had I dug deeper into the PSC gearbox swap earlier in the year I probably would have discovered that it was not going to work with my engine swap and at that time I probably would have just gone hydro-assist but instead I wasted some time and money and now I'm back to installing hydro-assist.
Live and learn I guess.
Thanks for following along Justin.
