yeah it's probably one of the most overlooked fluids in the auto.you should have seen the stuff i flushed from log trucks brake lines....pretty black.....whatever it was lol......ain't nobody got time for that.

 

I picked up the f450 pedal today. Yes it is possible to slide the pedal shaft out and remove the pedal. Only took about 10 mins.

 

I got it all installed this weekend. It was pretty easy overall, especially having a direct swap setup. I decided to use the F450 MC so I will have to bleed the brakes. I didn't have enough brake fluid to fill the huge reservoir so I have to bleed the brakes another day. I couldn't resist going for a test drive. Even with a little air in the lines the improvement is huge! I can lock up the 37" tires now which was impossible before. No more 2nd gear for brakes! (you ZF guys know what I mean)

Here is the package, having a donor setup is the way to go, so easy.


For reference here is a pedal comparison. Hydroboost pedal on the right has the pin 3/4" closer to the pivot.


I also found this interesting. I had read a few posts saying that it's good to add a fluid cooler to the power steering system after adding hydroboost. When hooking up the fluid return lines I noticed it connected to these tubes. I had never given them much thought, thinking they were from the now removed auto tranny fluid cooler. But I see now they are for cooling the PS fluid. It should be better than nothing


Thanks for all the help folks. Your input made this swap easy. What a great upgrade!

 

Something doesn't look quite right about the "p/s cooler"/return lines. The stock setup is to have the lines there, but it looks like someone replaced them with hand bent tubing and did a crappy job.

However... that stock setup is basically good enough for power steering only, adding a real cooler is what every one means. I know when I added hydroboost to my truck, the unit was running damn hot. A small tranny cooler will work well. I had picked one up, but haven't had the chance to put it on. At this point, that truck is low priority, so I'll likely put it on my new truck when I swap a hydroboost into it.

Makes me wonder though, I have a manual tranny, but the radiator has the core for an auto... I wonder if running the power steering fluid through there would work well enough?

 

So the bleed fitting on my caliper sheared despite soaking in penetrating oil for days. Ordered new calipers, pads, and flex hoses. I am going to replace the hard lines too all the way back to the MC. This was on my list anyway. New front brakes will be good.

 

You seem to be missing a trackbar there

Ditch that useless "stock" cooler that likes to rust out and why someone would try to make another one is beyond me....

P.s. the hydrobooster itself is self priming compared to the steering gear and even that is very easy to prime

Yes you could do this, though it would take longer for the fluid to warm up but you should never burn the fluid with the radiator cooling it and it wouldn't hurt to even put a inline filter in too at this point.

 

Thanks you are right. I actually didn't really know what was missing there until now. Thinking about it, I am pretty sure the previous owner must have removed it due to the 4" lift. It has the F450 front spring swap. I can easily make a drop bracket for the mount though so I should get going on that and getting a track bar. I have some death wobble issues so that could help. I have a lot of front end work coming... brakes, track bar, king pin bushings, tie rod ends, and a gear change.

 

The track bar will help the death wobble. I had some issues with death wobble after I swapped a Dana60 into my truck. Tried a few things, but the track bar was the winner and basically eliminated the wobble.

 

Just ordered the track bar. I really think it will help the death wobble because the only time I get the wobble is when going at 4th or 5th gear speeds in a turn and hit a bump. Then it can start oscillating on me!