I finally have gotten everything I needed together to finish this several month project. It's not that it was that complicated it's just that I didn't have a lot time and every time I worked on it I needed something else.
First finding a place to put a large hydraulic filter wasn't easy on a 98 Ford Taurus. The two places I could find are the right and left corners behind the front bumper. I started by making a mounting plate that bolts to the frame and bumper tower. This wasn't exactly easy to bolt up since the nuts are inside the frame and bumper tower. The nuts have a couple washers welded to them with one side ground flat. The holes are close to the frame wall so the flat fits against that and doesn't turn when the bolt is tightening.
The filter bracket I made in the machine shop by milling a pocket out for the pressure switch and welding it into an L shape. This then bolts to the mounting plate on the car.
I made a classic blunder, when I hooked it up, I didn't realize I plumbed into the power steering cooling circuit. Heck the lines went back by the transmission and disappeared and the power steering fluid actually is transmission fluid so it all looked right at the time. It wasn't until after adding a quart of transmission fluid to the transmission, running the car and wondering why it was a quart high. Then I turned the wheel and noticed no power steering. Oh, well within a 1/2 hour I had the right lines connected, added transmission fluid the power steering and a little more to the trans and everything was alright.
The filter is a Pall 2.5µm hydraulic filter with a 15-psi differential pressure switch and 25-psi bypass valve. I wired the pressure switch temporarily to turn on a light that I've run to under the dash. So far, the switch hasn't turned on during the few days that the filter has been installed. I've taken it too the redline and this morning the temperature was 38F, so the filter to my surprise hasn't tripped the switch and is filtering all the volume all the time.
Pictures of the install are at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/filter_stuff
First finding a place to put a large hydraulic filter wasn't easy on a 98 Ford Taurus. The two places I could find are the right and left corners behind the front bumper. I started by making a mounting plate that bolts to the frame and bumper tower. This wasn't exactly easy to bolt up since the nuts are inside the frame and bumper tower. The nuts have a couple washers welded to them with one side ground flat. The holes are close to the frame wall so the flat fits against that and doesn't turn when the bolt is tightening.
The filter bracket I made in the machine shop by milling a pocket out for the pressure switch and welding it into an L shape. This then bolts to the mounting plate on the car.
I made a classic blunder, when I hooked it up, I didn't realize I plumbed into the power steering cooling circuit. Heck the lines went back by the transmission and disappeared and the power steering fluid actually is transmission fluid so it all looked right at the time. It wasn't until after adding a quart of transmission fluid to the transmission, running the car and wondering why it was a quart high. Then I turned the wheel and noticed no power steering. Oh, well within a 1/2 hour I had the right lines connected, added transmission fluid the power steering and a little more to the trans and everything was alright.
The filter is a Pall 2.5µm hydraulic filter with a 15-psi differential pressure switch and 25-psi bypass valve. I wired the pressure switch temporarily to turn on a light that I've run to under the dash. So far, the switch hasn't turned on during the few days that the filter has been installed. I've taken it too the redline and this morning the temperature was 38F, so the filter to my surprise hasn't tripped the switch and is filtering all the volume all the time.
Pictures of the install are at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/filter_stuff
