Bob Johnstones Studebaker Resource Website (Studebaker Power Steering ram rebuild)

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Studebaker Drivers Club Forum
Studebaker Power Steering Ram Rebuild - How to
by SBCA96/Tom Rautio, Santa Barbara, CA

Since I am a glutton for punishment, I have ventured ahead on thispower steering rebuild project. Next on my hit list is the power ram.This guy is where all the pressure ends up from the pump, diverted bythe control valve on the pitman arm. Its bolted on one end to thefront frame rail, and the other end goes to an arm off the bell crank.

A 3/4 box end wrench can do the job if you know the trick of hookinganother wrench to the open end to "extend" it for more leverage. FirstI tried backing off the nut and wacking it a couple times with a largesledge hammer. That didnt work. Second I tried a neat new tool thatpushes the tip of the shaft, and pops the end right out of the arm. Itdidnt work either - the frame is in the way.

Lastly, I used the "old reliable" - pickle fork. Obviously it workedjust fine, except it destroyed the boot - its trademark.

On the other end, I had to cut the steel end of the hoses, rust wasntallowing the flare nut to turn on the tube. This results in the tubetrying to turn WITH the flare nut and twisting the tube. A hacksaw isquite capable of negotiating through the old rusted tube quite fast.

Unfortunately, when I unthreaded the nut off the pivot bolt, it alsotook the threads with it! Now my pivot bolt is screwed up. Not surewhat to do about this, I bet Studebaker International has one, but Ijust dont have the cash to pay for it right now. I will have to takeit off the car and see if I can rethread it to the next metric sizedown (to leave more material).
Took a couple minutes to scrape all the crap off it and get as much ofthe fluid out of it as I could.
Some of the fluid was BLACK, thats kinda odd.It cleaned up OK.
Tom

Why remove the rod end from the bellcrank arm at all? Count the number of threads showing on the cylinder rod end (helpful on re-assembly). Loosen the jam nut, and unscrew the cylinder rod from the rod end. After rebuild, screw the rod back into the rod end and tighten the jam nut. This seems a lot easier, and you won't damage the rod end or boot. Or am I missing something here?
Jim Bradley
'64 Daytona HT

(Tom)....Thats what I was thinking, and it makes perfect sense. The downside is that taking pictures of the pieces would be harder, at least the 'tierod' end anyway. The end has to come off anyway, so yes it makesperfect sense now that I have cleaned it up and can see what it looks like. Marking/counting the threads and unscrewing it should work.

Any thoughts on what happened at the frame end?? Nice threads huh? I am thinking impact gun. I got the piece off today. I dont see it in the Studebaker International catalog. I will bring it to work tomorrow and see if they can turn it on the lathe down to the next size metric thread like I mentioned. It doesnt see and great forces that I canpicture. Thoughts?

Rust does such nice things to bolts, it would hav e been nice had itjust broke off, I have to replace it anyway, but instead the threadswere just hard to turn but good.

Second I tried a neat new tool thatpushes the tip of the shaft, and pops the end right out of the arm. It didnt work either - the frame is in the way.

I dunno .. I guess what it is .. is what it is, I might shorten it asmuch as I can when I put it back together. Here is the pivot bolt onthe lathe at work. Turned the 1/2-13 threads off to the major of the7/16-20 thread he is putting on it. I decided on 7/16-20, over doinga 7/16-14 because it picks up another 5 foot pounds of max torque. Thenut is supposed to be torqued 45-50 ft pounds and the standard ratingon a 7/16-20 is 50 ft lbs. Just barely gets me in the door

Here is the grease boot I got from Napa - 5 bucks! Looks like it willwork fine though. You can also see the '95 Impala SS upper ball jointcastle nut and the threads I had to remove that got damaged.

Here are all the parts cleaned up on the wire wheel at work, and thenow rethreaded pivot bolt :

I tried with shop pressure (80 psi) to blow the seal out of the ram,that was a pointless effort. The shop has a water fed 1000 psi ram,but I dont want to introduce water into the PS ram. I guess the nextstep is to see if there is a way to manually remove the seal without damaging the cylinder bore (shop manual suggests awls) or wait until I have the control valve rebuilt and the new hoses on, to do the left turn POP thats recommended.Tom

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Since I am a glutton for punishment, I have ventured ahead on thispower steering rebuild project. Next on my hit list is the power ram.This guy is where all the pressure ends up from the pump, diverted bythe control valve on the pitman arm. Its bolted on one end to thefront frame rail, and the other end goes to an arm off the bell crank.
A 3/4 box end wrench can do the job if you know the trick of hookinganother wrench to the open end to "extend" it for more leverage. FirstI tried backing off the nut and wacking it a couple times with a largesledge hammer. That didnt work. Second I tried a neat new tool thatpushes the tip of the shaft, and pops the end right out of the arm. Itdidnt work either - the frame is in the way.
Lastly, I used the "old reliable" - pickle fork. Obviously it workedjust fine, except it destroyed the boot - its trademark.
On the other end, I had to cut the steel end of the hoses, rust wasntallowing the flare nut to turn on the tube. This results in the tubetrying to turn WITH the flare nut and twisting the tube. A hacksaw isquite capable of negotiating through the old rusted tube quite fast.
Unfortunately, when I unthreaded the nut off the pivot bolt, it alsotook the threads with it! Now my pivot bolt is screwed up. Not surewhat to do about this, I bet Studebaker International has one, but Ijust dont have the cash to pay for it right now. I will have to takeit off the car and see if I can rethread it to the next metric sizedown (to leave more material).
Took a couple minutes to scrape all the crap off it and get as much ofthe fluid out of it as I could.
Some of the fluid was BLACK, thats kinda odd.It cleaned up OK. Tom
Why remove the rod end from the bellcrank arm at all? Count the number of threads showing on the cylinder rod end (helpful on re-assembly). Loosen the jam nut, and unscrew the cylinder rod from the rod end. After rebuild, screw the rod back into the rod end and tighten the jam nut. This seems a lot easier, and you won't damage the rod end or boot. Or am I missing something here? Jim Bradley '64 Daytona HT	(Tom)....Thats what I was thinking, and it makes perfect sense. The downside is that taking pictures of the pieces would be harder, at least the 'tierod' end anyway. The end has to come off anyway, so yes it makesperfect sense now that I have cleaned it up and can see what it looks like. Marking/counting the threads and unscrewing it should work.
Any thoughts on what happened at the frame end?? Nice threads huh? I am thinking impact gun. I got the piece off today. I dont see it in the Studebaker International catalog. I will bring it to work tomorrow and see if they can turn it on the lathe down to the next size metric thread like I mentioned. It doesnt see and great forces that I canpicture. Thoughts?
Rust does such nice things to bolts, it would hav e been nice had itjust broke off, I have to replace it anyway, but instead the threadswere just hard to turn but good.
Second I tried a neat new tool thatpushes the tip of the shaft, and pops the end right out of the arm. It didnt work either - the frame is in the way.
I dunno .. I guess what it is .. is what it is, I might shorten it asmuch as I can when I put it back together. Here is the pivot bolt onthe lathe at work. Turned the 1/2-13 threads off to the major of the7/16-20 thread he is putting on it. I decided on 7/16-20, over doinga 7/16-14 because it picks up another 5 foot pounds of max torque. Thenut is supposed to be torqued 45-50 ft pounds and the standard ratingon a 7/16-20 is 50 ft lbs. Just barely gets me in the door
Here is the grease boot I got from Napa - 5 bucks! Looks like it willwork fine though. You can also see the '95 Impala SS upper ball jointcastle nut and the threads I had to remove that got damaged.
Here are all the parts cleaned up on the wire wheel at work, and thenow rethreaded pivot bolt :
I tried with shop pressure (80 psi) to blow the seal out of the ram,that was a pointless effort. The shop has a water fed 1000 psi ram,but I dont want to introduce water into the PS ram. I guess the nextstep is to see if there is a way to manually remove the seal without damaging the cylinder bore (shop manual suggests awls) or wait until I have the control valve rebuilt and the new hoses on, to do the left turn POP thats recommended.Tom