2 Big Broncos Rocky Mountain Site
Miscellaneous Parts
Power steering fluid conditioning
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Parts from Performance Automotive Warehouse
Power Steering Cooler and Filter
The installation of the power steering cooler and filter was rather uneventful. It was very tight behind the grill to fit parts in, but the install came out looking very clean.
The Hayden kit included all the parts needed to install the cooler. All I needed to add was some foam pipe insulation to keep things from rubbing. The cooler and filter are installed in the return line between the steering box and the pump. The hoses are routed from the steering components through the gap between the radiator and the radiator bulkhead on the drivers side. The routing is through the filter first and then through the cooler. The filter is for a Toyota 22R engine. It is just right to fit behind the grill.
Although the cooler has helped immensely, I think I will be replacing it with a bigger one before too much longer. I may go to a regular automatic transmission cooler to increase capacity. With the lockers, the steering will lock tight in some situations causing the steering fluid to overheat.
The filter has worked much better than I had hoped. Since the parts of the steering system are still original, the fluid was in really bad shape, even after replacement. With the filter in place, the fluid stays a nice, bright red all the time. I highly recommend this modification.
Sun Super Tach II Tachometer
Installing the Sun Super Tach II is very straightforward. The hardest part is figuring out how the mount the thing. I went the easy route and used a couple large nylon tie wraps around the steering column. I will be mounting it more solidly with a couple large hose clamps eventually. I haven't routed the wires yet and just left them wrapped around the hood release.
The only problem I have with the tach is that the light is very bright and reflects off the windshield just like a heads-up display. This is very distracting. I know people who have strapped on little hoods of sheet metal or cardboard to eliminate the reflections. This is a very good idea.
It looks like the tach covers half the dash in this picture. Actually, I aligned it with the empty clock section and left the speedometer clear. The tie wraps work amazingly well as long as the foot of the tach has a little something under it to stick to the column. It hasn't presented any problems yet, and the Bronc get bounced a lot.