- Location
- Henderson, NV
Since my last update, I've gotten quite a few things done on the XJ.
I did the first major upgrade to Pearl, I replaced my old power steering system with a new PSC system. I got a new steering gear, pump, and remote reservoir. The kit also comes with a fluid cooler as well, but in my opinion, it's not really meant for an XJ. There's really no good place to mount it that made too much sense. I mounted mine on the center crossmember. It doesn't get much "ram" air from driving, but it does get some of the pully fan air that is right above it. Probably going to replace this with a standard transmission cooler of some kind that can be mounted to the front of the condenser.
The other issue with the PSC kit is that the bracket they provide is supposed to mount to the brake booster, and it does, but with the reservoir mounted there, the hood wont close. So, I had 2 options, Cut the hood, or cut the fender. I chose the latter. Kind of a pain, but ended up working out. I cut a notch out of the top of the wheel well and bent it down. I then welded in some filler material and voilà - reservoir fits.
I bled the system for a better part of 3-4 hours. Manually turning the wheel multiple times, then letting it sit for a while. After that started it up and continued rotating the wheel back and forth. First with the wheels off the ground, then on the ground. No bubbles, and the steering feels amazing. It's like a brand new Jeep. Only complaint i have is at higher RPMs (3500-4500), the pump has a hormonic whine that is a little annoying but nothing that is terrible. I've been able to take the jeep offroad, (Moab) and have to say that this steering setup is a major improvement. The gearbox has provisions for hydro assist that i can hook up in the future, but for now, this seems like it will do just fine.
I then worked on reinstalling the ARB compressor in the original location that i had on the previous Jeep.
The bracket was tweaked but salvageable. So i straightened it out reinstalled the compressor to it. I reinstalled the fuses into the PDC and hooked everything back up. I also installed my AUXbeam switch panel and harness. This was the easy part because everything was pretty much drop in. The harness i had previously made for the ARB and the AUXBeam was loomed to the correct length and had connectors either side. So it essentially dropped in.
on the drivers side, I also needed to reinstall an aux relay panel that I had mounted on the fender well on the previous jeep. However, with the new PSC power steering pump reservoir now mounted to the brake booster, I needed to rebuild the bracket and move the fuse panel closer to the air intake. I used some carboard to rough out a design. Then plasma made a quick cut out. I then used my cheap- o bench vise break to bend up the sides. I even welded an spacer on the lip of the new bracket so it would sit flat on the fender. This time I made a Z shaped bracket that mounted to the fender where the hold open rod would be on a RHD jeep. I then did a nutzert on the fender well for the bottom bolt. Came out nicely.
This relay panel is for a couple different things. As of right now, It has an isolation relay for my Rock lights that split the rock lights from my interior/entry lights. I have a writeup in my head that i need to make for the entry light mod that I did, but I'll summarize it here. I wired in a domelight dimmer module in the overhead console that controls the interior lights. It gives me a couple fucntions, but the main one is it keeps the interior lights on and then dims the lights out after 10 seconds when a door shuts. It also has some timeout functions that cuts the lights if they are left on for more than 10 minutes. I tied this circuit in with my rock lights, so when you unlock the jeep with the fob, the rock lights will turn on as well as the interior lights. Kind of like puddle lights on a newer car. I still wanted to be able to turn on the rock lights independently from the interior lights, so when i press the "Rock Lights" button on the Auxbeam, the relay clicks over and isolates the rock lights from the interior lights and gives them a ground, turning them on.
In the future, I plan on adding a aux fan override that will have a time delay relay that will run the fan for a couple minutes after the jeep is turned off. This should help with any vapor lock issues due to high temps. I Also have ideas in my head to wire up an "Extended Idle" switch as well.
I did the first major upgrade to Pearl, I replaced my old power steering system with a new PSC system. I got a new steering gear, pump, and remote reservoir. The kit also comes with a fluid cooler as well, but in my opinion, it's not really meant for an XJ. There's really no good place to mount it that made too much sense. I mounted mine on the center crossmember. It doesn't get much "ram" air from driving, but it does get some of the pully fan air that is right above it. Probably going to replace this with a standard transmission cooler of some kind that can be mounted to the front of the condenser.
The other issue with the PSC kit is that the bracket they provide is supposed to mount to the brake booster, and it does, but with the reservoir mounted there, the hood wont close. So, I had 2 options, Cut the hood, or cut the fender. I chose the latter. Kind of a pain, but ended up working out. I cut a notch out of the top of the wheel well and bent it down. I then welded in some filler material and voilà - reservoir fits.
I bled the system for a better part of 3-4 hours. Manually turning the wheel multiple times, then letting it sit for a while. After that started it up and continued rotating the wheel back and forth. First with the wheels off the ground, then on the ground. No bubbles, and the steering feels amazing. It's like a brand new Jeep. Only complaint i have is at higher RPMs (3500-4500), the pump has a hormonic whine that is a little annoying but nothing that is terrible. I've been able to take the jeep offroad, (Moab) and have to say that this steering setup is a major improvement. The gearbox has provisions for hydro assist that i can hook up in the future, but for now, this seems like it will do just fine.
I then worked on reinstalling the ARB compressor in the original location that i had on the previous Jeep.
The bracket was tweaked but salvageable. So i straightened it out reinstalled the compressor to it. I reinstalled the fuses into the PDC and hooked everything back up. I also installed my AUXbeam switch panel and harness. This was the easy part because everything was pretty much drop in. The harness i had previously made for the ARB and the AUXBeam was loomed to the correct length and had connectors either side. So it essentially dropped in.
on the drivers side, I also needed to reinstall an aux relay panel that I had mounted on the fender well on the previous jeep. However, with the new PSC power steering pump reservoir now mounted to the brake booster, I needed to rebuild the bracket and move the fuse panel closer to the air intake. I used some carboard to rough out a design. Then plasma made a quick cut out. I then used my cheap- o bench vise break to bend up the sides. I even welded an spacer on the lip of the new bracket so it would sit flat on the fender. This time I made a Z shaped bracket that mounted to the fender where the hold open rod would be on a RHD jeep. I then did a nutzert on the fender well for the bottom bolt. Came out nicely.
This relay panel is for a couple different things. As of right now, It has an isolation relay for my Rock lights that split the rock lights from my interior/entry lights. I have a writeup in my head that i need to make for the entry light mod that I did, but I'll summarize it here. I wired in a domelight dimmer module in the overhead console that controls the interior lights. It gives me a couple fucntions, but the main one is it keeps the interior lights on and then dims the lights out after 10 seconds when a door shuts. It also has some timeout functions that cuts the lights if they are left on for more than 10 minutes. I tied this circuit in with my rock lights, so when you unlock the jeep with the fob, the rock lights will turn on as well as the interior lights. Kind of like puddle lights on a newer car. I still wanted to be able to turn on the rock lights independently from the interior lights, so when i press the "Rock Lights" button on the Auxbeam, the relay clicks over and isolates the rock lights from the interior lights and gives them a ground, turning them on.
In the future, I plan on adding a aux fan override that will have a time delay relay that will run the fan for a couple minutes after the jeep is turned off. This should help with any vapor lock issues due to high temps. I Also have ideas in my head to wire up an "Extended Idle" switch as well.
