steering reservoir hardline

is the hardpipe that wraps around the front end, goes accross the passenger rail, through a soft line then down to the rack used for cooling ???

ive relocated my reservoir to the rear drivers side corner and if i cancel that whole hardline out it will be a short line from the rack to the reservoir...

 

Always wondered about those long spaghetti lines
Possibly part of the reason .as well has increasing fluid capacity

I've removed it but added a smaller cooler

 

Will try to find out. AFAIK it will reduce the pressure at the end of the spaghetti, whilst cooling.

 

Gen III commodore have a hairpin line. Just we're not sure on the purpose. All I know it that additional pipe is going to add hydraulic friction and provide cooling. I have contemplated using a larger pulley to reduce hydraulic pressure. Mainly to reduce leakage. It would however make the steering heavier. Which I believe is safer at higher speed. Apart from trying to correct a major oversteer or total spin out that is.

 

stick to holdens mate

 

Nah, they're dangerous.

 

Thius "hairpin" line you speak of, may be something akin to the Z32 clutch release "Line to nowhere" (aka: Damper Line) I wrote in detail about some time back.

I wonder if such, apparently at first, useless setups are in place for the purposes of dampening resonances and noise in the hydraulic systems from tansmitting back into the cabin?
The increase in oil volume is insignificant against adding a further 12mm in diameter to the reservoir.

Now, underdriving your PS pump will achieve nothing in the way of pressure reduction with a view to leaks. Only some minor gain in engine horsepower and slightly reduced oil temp gererated.

The pump is currently "geared" to provide sufficient hydraulic flow and uncompromised steering effort at idling speeds without overspeeding the pump at high en gine rpm.
Underdriving will reduce pump output (in terms of flow) at low rpms which will only result in possibly some humming noise from the pump and mebbe possibly some slight vibration back into the steering wheel and if an extreme underdrive, might slow steering wheel rotation at very low rpm. The nature of the vane type pump (or gerotor, or gear whatever type it is (positive displacement)) is the pressure will remain the same when the question is really asked. Pull the steering wheel hard against the stops (with an iac disconnected so no idle speed recovery) is usually enough to stall an idling engine. Sometimes even enough to flick the belt off the pulleys if it snapped against the stops hard enough!

If you have leaks, then you have leaks. So fix them. THAT is childsplay.
Thinking along your lines, do you rev your engine less to deal with an oil leak?

E

 

So we going with it doesn't do much for cooling and to rip out the whole hardline ?

 

yep.

 

I'm running a rubber return line direct from the rack to the reservoir (I couldn't find a TT hard line when converting the car from NA-TT). I'm not sure if it'll be a problem on a street car but on the track my power steering oil gets hot and boils. Not good for the pump & seals.
As Tassuperkart said, it's probably been routed that way for a number of reasons (heat transfer and dampening hydraulic rack rattle noises).

I'm now going to run a small P/S oil cooler in the return line to keep the fluid temps down. Also will switch to a better ATF fluid like Transmax Z which should help.

 

I always agree with a cooler in the return side. PS oil runs very hot all the time. try touching the reservoir after a decent run in heavy traffic with plenty of use of the steering at low speed.....!
E

 

thanx guys for the responses

ive decided im going to rip out the hardline and connect the reservoir straight to the rack should only need about 30cm hose to where ive relocated the reservoir..

if i have boiling problems i will fit a cooler in the line

 

LOL. It wont boil!!! Its just that the oil in the system runs very hot, even under average use and can lead to all sorts of issues.
Never seems to be a drama with a small cooler in the return line.

E

 

"all sorts of issues"

and what sorts of issues are we talking about if the fluid hasnt exceeded its max oil temp and boiling ...

 

Suffices to say that a disproportionate number of PS failures are a direct result of overheated oil/components.
Do with that info as you will.
E