Myself and a few friends run tapped stock boxes with trail gear rams and homemade brackets. Definitely the cheap way to do it. My friends have more wheeling runs than I on theirs and no issues to date but I'm sure you're getting a more worry free experience spending the money on the PSC ram, pump, reservoir and box.
Great info. Explains the price on the big bore box’s. New castings?
No way to know. They take it apart to tap it and it could go back together just fine.
No one pays me to fix my fuck ups. No one pays me to fix steering company fuck ups. I have to go with what I have proven to myself works by doing it over and over. Every time I had a problem of any kind and solved it, that solution got moved to every parts order. Also why very little of what I use is available in kit form from anyone. It is all pieced together so I don't have to fix it very often. I still run into issues but not often and not common.
I bought this kit:
Yes. This is why I try to rarely use aftermarket parts in The forklift world. Ya we can replace a defective part. But we loose money and the customer is not happy about down time.
So, "total source" is no bueno? I have three more leaky cylinders on our komatsu lifts to fix.
What about hard chroming and ID grinding the bore back to size? You think there is enough of a market, and that the market would pay for it? I'd imagine, depending on how worn the ID's get, it would be a couple hundred bucks to have it done (just the chrome and machining...no disassembly, cleaning, reassembly, etc).
Lares has new steering gears listed On their web site. So they are available. But maybe cost prohibitive vs a large bore box?
Two of the cylinders that I paid to have repaired/rebuilt used total source parts, that was two years ago. Both are weeping/small leaking. They did not do any cylinder honing, which may be why they are starting to leak, or it could be the seals. My money is on the seals. I will be doing them myself this time and doing a little bottlebrush honing too. I have tried a online company (can't remember the site) to order a packing kit using the model and serial number. Entirely wrong parts arrived. Stuff like a 3" bore lip seal were the OE is 2", etc.. So, I am still looking for a reliable source. We have a local supplier named "O" rings-N-things that nails it 100%. But you have to take the parts too them to match. I was there today, saved me a ton, $13.50 for a head and gland seal parts. New cylinder is $400.
On a similar topic - why not just make oversized pistons? The castings could be bored out and an oversized piston installed (similar to when overhauling an engine).
I'd guess that the casting isn't thick enough. One of the things we check on a new install is to ensure that the 3 faces of the bolt sleeves are exactly in the same plane to make certain that we are not racking or twisting the casting which messes with how the piston moves in the bore.
I can't prove it but since Crown Automotive is also selling a new steering gear, I'd suspect they are coming out of the same place and the report I saw on the CA version isn't that great.
