Power steering hose

[58Apache]

Can you make your own power steering hoses? Will the braided stainless with teflon hose work?  I have a newer metric style pump and box.

                                      Steve

[Bob Paulin]

Can you make your own power steering hoses? Will the braided stainless with teflon hose work?  I have a newer metric style pump and box.

                                      Steve

Steve:

Most - and I repeat *most* - power steering pumps develop 1500-to-2000 p.s.i. maximum pressure.

Being an old guy who has experienced way too much in a lifetime of modifying cars, I prefer to double that number as a safety factor. You, personally, may be comfortable with a slightly or even moderately narrower safety margin.

So, is the hose you are talking about capable of handling 3000-to-4000 p.s.i. (or your own personal safety margin)?

Answer that, and you'll answer your own question.

Once you answer that question, it's just a matter of whether or not the hose manufacturer has the fittings you need......

.........and, don't mix manufacturer's hoses and fittings. They are, likely. NOT engineered to work correctly with each other.

The guy who managed the NAPA store before I did, routinely crimped our Weatherhead fittings on other brand hoses - despite a bold-print warning in the Weatherhead catalog against such procedures - and I was the guy who had to deal with the backlash.

I don't work at the parts store any longer, so I have no vested interest in the following statement......

You might be going for the looks of braided stainless, but NAPA had a power steering hose parts list from which you could pick fittings and install them on whatever length hose your application required.


Bob Paulin

[C9]

"Most - and I repeat *most* - power steering pumps develop 1500-to-2000 p.s.i. maximum pressure."

Bob's right on here, seems like my 77 Ford 3/4 ton 4x4 had about 1700# on it as shown on a pressure test gauge.

You can get reusable fittings similar to Earls et al.
Most times a soft finish cad plating as shown in the pic below.
Smaller hose sizes in many cases have a bright nickel finish which is very close to chrome.

The hose shown is rated for 3000# and was obtained at an oil field supply house.
I've seen similar hoses available in farm supply houses, hydraulic supply houses and bearing houses.
Best bet is probably the hydraulic supply house, but the oil field places have a wide variety of hoses.

Some of the houses will have a gloss blue or black and others will have flat black outer woven braid - the braid a plastic product.

Except for the metric problem you run into with some late GM power steering fittings you should be able to find what you need with no problems.
Hydraulic houses and the others crimp hoses, but you may find it better - as I did to use the reusable fittings and make your own.

I did that for the power steering hoses on the pickup mentioned above and they lasted a long time.

The parts house ready to go replacement pressure side hoses only lasted a couple of weeks - each.

Another nice part to using the reusable fittings is that you can set the orientation of the fittings to what you want and change it if necessary.

[C9]

This cookie tin should give you an idea of what's available in the fittings.

They range from #3 & 4 to really big stuff for D8's and the like.
The hose shown in the above post is a #10 and destined for remote oil filter use.

Prices for the plastic braided stuff is about half or less of what the Earls costs.

Be careful if you decide to run this hose with gasoline or other fuels.
Some brands of hose resist gasoline damage quite well and others aren't worth a darn.

My little brother ran it for gas lines in the first iteration of his Henry J drag racer and it worked well.
I initially tried it - the hose outside braid was a flat black color - and it deteriorated overnight ending up with many small pinholes along it's length.

The fittings shown are SAE which means they have a 45 degree seat as compared to Earls and Aeroquip which are AN (Army-Navy) and have a 37 degree seat.
Contrary to what some tell you, you can run the fittings in combination with no leaks and no problems.

[C9]

There's a couple of ways to combine the 37 degree and 45 degree fittings.

If there is sufficient material on the male fitting - most times there is, depends to an extent on size: #8 #10 etc. - you can chuck it up in a lathe and cut a new angle on the fitting.

The other way is simple, quick and works quite well plus it has the added advantage of leaving the male fitting as it was.
Handy sometimes if you're inclined to change fittings and lines - as I am.

Take note of the strangely shaped formed washer that's sitting on the bench and centered between the blue hose, stainless hose and blue anodized fitting.
These are made by Earls - and perhaps others - and are called repair seats.
They're made of soft metal and are in effect a gasket designed to be used inside the fitting.
The idea is they will conform to a damaged seat - whether male or female - allow reuse of the damaged fitting.
They come in specific sizes, but the price is quite reasonable.

These formed washers work very well between SAE 45 degree and AN 37 degree fittings regardless of which is male or female.
I run a combined fitting on my remote oil filter lines where I have AN #10 lines leaving the filter adapter and connecting to the frame bulkhead fittings which are #10 SAE.
Repair washers are used to allow combining the fitting types in this obviously critical location and there have been no problems in many miles of driving.

Fwiw - my little brother has combined the SAE and AN fittings directly, but inspecting them after disassembly shows a very narrow contact seat which I think could be prone to leak if everything wasn't exactly right.
The formed washers alleviate this potential problem.

You can get the repair washers at most any well equipped speed shop.
Also available from Earls and they're listed in the Earls catalog.

[C9]

Long as I'm on a roll and I hope I'm not highjacking the post - here's a pic of the frame bulkhead adapters mentioned.

Problem is, with #10 oil lines there's not enough room to turn the 90 degree bulkhead fittings - that are installed on the hoses and then fed into the boxed frame rails.
The frame rails are 2" wide on the outside and 1 3/4" wide on the inside due to the .120 wall frame rails and .120 boxing plates.

Making the frame rail holes oval is required, but then you run into the problem where the oval hole is not completely covered by the bulkhead nut.
A washer would probably work ok, but it's possible the fitting could move around.

The problem was cured by making up a couple of adapters for the bulkhead fittings.
They were drilled to fit the bulkhead fitting precisely and also step drilled for three 10-32 allen machine screws and the frame tapped to match.
It's difficult to see the step drilling in the adapters in the pic, but what it does is allow the allen to sink down into the aluminum so the head is almost flush.
Makes for a nice look and you don't end up with a galled out area where the allen clamps down on the aluminum.

The stainless lines you see are where the connection to the SAE fittings are made.
Fwiw - the dual oil filters are under the body under the passenger seat.

The braided plastic lines were originally used here, but replace with Earls stainless lines due to the stainless will make a sharper bend than does the braided plastic line.

The other advantage with the bulkhead adapter pieces are that the inside oil line fitting hex is not laying up against the boxing plate as it would be if you mounted it directly to the boxing plate.
Spacing it out like the adapter does centers the longitudinal part of the bulkhead fitting quite well.

You will need a very long wrench to access the fitting for tightening on the bulkhead fitting inside the frame.

Go to Harbor Freight and buy their 3/8" to 1" combination wrench set.
I bought one several years back for about ten bucks and have been cutting them or heat bending them into special wrenches for quite a while.
Home-made Crowfoots for one thing.

The long wrench was made from the 1" wrench if I remember right and all that happened there was the wrench was cut in two with a carbide blade hacksaw blade, inserted into a length of 1/2 x 1" rectangular tubing and brazed together.