Better buggy build

[superpile]

Figured I’d share some pics of my baby bouncer steering rebuild to full hydro and fixing a few things on it. This is a can am X3 in a RSC single seat chassis, first one he built so it is a learning curve. The biggest issue has been stock or otherwise the steering. It sucks. Justin moved the rack up 2.5 inches over stock and we limited the front travel to 6 up 8 down and it steers well, when the E power steering unit decides to work. It was problematic from the start and with the stickies it just cut out at first grunt past 25% power so it was basically useless. The steering connection was a wonky mess with the single seat setup which I’m sure didn’t help.

After running my runner with 37 stickies this past weekend, with ram assist loving it the whole day, and making one last attempt at getting the electric power steering to cooperate for my buddy to drive the buggy I have had enough. So I went all in on some full hydro.

6 inch PSC ram double ended and clevis mounts made it in yesterday so I started stripping the old steering out and flipping bolts to make maintenance easy with the ram mounted. Volvo electric steering pump from eBay shows Monday and a beyond precise orbital will be next.

Other tweaks to the buggy include going to mesh for the front wheel wells when going back together to allow tracking the wheel placement, which will be a huge low speed crawling help. 34 stickies on my factory beadlocks with 1/2 inch more ride height to fake 35s. Also plan to add a full size muffler as it is to loud for trail riding in general or low speed rock crawling.

Some pics of starting mess to figuring out ram mounting to get same steering results:

 

[superpile]

Kinda pitiful looking just hanging there...

 

[Bebop]

Loving it !
Keep it coming.

 

[superpile]

Card board mount and side braces templates done. Cutting out of .250 plate tomorrow hopefully.

 

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Pump made it in. I ordered the earls power steering pump to an fitting today to go with normal hydraulic hoses. The pump otherwise is pretty straight forward. Only wire used in the three wire plug is one closet to the pump to start it, the big plug is 8 gauge power ground combo. 30 amp fuse so half what the E power steering uses. I’m excited to get it mounted later this week. I didn’t get my ram mount done this afternoon due to the torch running out of gas when I started to cut the plate to size... oh well hopefully tomorrow!

 

[superpile]

Mount is done and test fit is a success! I plan to tack it in tomorrow night. The orbital is supposed to be here tomorrow as well. My goal is to tack the mount and fab one side of the tie rods at least. Maybe mount the orbital and other side Saturday. I’ve got an idea on building the pump mount. So slow but still progress.

 

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Progress! Hoping to mount the pump tomorrow. Had a couple hours today and made some good advances. Hoping to get lines made Monday. The power steering fitting I ordered was wrong but it turned out to be good since I know now I have larger pump outlet for higher GPM rate which will help the ram run faster. Should have the correct one late next week. Anyways it’s coming along nicely.

 

[superpile]

Pump mounts done and installed. Wiring set up but missing a couple 4 gauge connectors. Low pressure lines hooked up. Measured for high pressure lines so I plan to get them made tomorrow and will be all set to hook up and test later this week when the 16 mm adapter for the pump comes in. Once it moves I’ll measure and fab the tie rods. Then a test ride!

 

[superpile]

It’s ALIVE!!! The steering is alive under pressure. Building tie rods and rod spacers for correct rod end height tomorrow night and plan to clean some of the wiring up since I have noticed it’s a nightmare.

My pump ended up needing the gray wire with blue stripe to get 12 volts. The other two are not hooked up. The furtherest one out. Found wiring say inner wire to 12volts others said outer wire to 12 volts, so may depend if you have the remote reservoir or not. I’m hoping someone comes out with a can bus switch to allow the system to be ramped up but as it is I’m pretty pleased so far.

Going to get the steering finished up then get the other hit list bullet points handled. New 3 chamber flow master installed and clutch weights to get the machine clutched for 34 or 35 inch tires.

 

[superpile]

Well fall back and punt. I’m going to build a yoke that moves and rigid mount the ram ends. The yoke will provide a mounting point for the rod ends close together like stock. This will keep the steering flat as the suspension travels. Designed the yoke and printed a half sample to check fit and height. Also on the wiring clean up I designed and 3D printed a 7 switch panel. The printer I run parts on a Onyx machines so the carbon fiber material is considerably stronger than abs or nylon so should last a long time.