I cleaned and painted the centerlink, idler arms, and tie rods. Tonight I assembled it all with the newly rebuilt control valve and tested and cleaned ram cylinder. I need to get some new pressure lines and it’ll be done.
As zapato mentioned, I am doing this car “one piece at a time”. I am trying to set goals to reach on progressing with this car. Times that I am not doing major work on the car, I am doing smaller stuff to keep the project moving. I don’t want the project to get stagnant.
So I spent Friday night dismantling the control valve, in order to soak it all overnight for a Saturday morning rebuild. It all came apart relatively easy. After having it all soak all night in some super clean, I cleaned it all up an then soaked all the internals and housing in some power steering fluid. I rebuilt the valve with a rebuild kit and a new ball stud kit as well. Then I coated the spool valve spring and nut with some white lithium grease and installed the end cap.
I then painted it in some chassis black semi-gloss and installed the stud boot and retainer. All done!
I have disassembled the power steering system and started working on the ram cylinder. I cleaned and inspected the shaft for gouges or wear. The shaft is excellent shape. So the next step was to put it under some pressure to check for leaks. It held pressure for over 1/2 hour. I decided I would clean the exterior of the cylinder and call it good.
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