Well since I'm planning on installing my Hydro Assist in the very near future (hopefully next week), I decided that I would make a bigger power steering reservior to accomidate the fluid level change from fully extended to fully retracted on the cylinder. Some people use the stock reservior with no problems and others have nothing but trouble - So I just decided to fix it now, before I have problems.
Heres some options on getting a bigger PS Reserviors:
* You could buy a aftermarket one from a place like Summit, well I'm cheap.
* You could make one from scratch. Too much work for me...
* You could swap a bigger Junkyard one on from another vehicle. I didn't feel like searching the junkyards plus I would have to probably rework the mounting.
* You could cut and sleeve the stock one to make it bigger. Well I didn't have any material the right size and I didn't feel like rolling a piece of sheetmetal out to make a sleeve the right size.
* You could just weld two stock toyotas reserviors together. This is what I choose because I had another reservior laying around.
First I removed the stock one from the vehicle.
Then I pryed the 6 metal tabs over and popped the lid off. Around the lid you will see a small rubber seal. Inside is a metal screen for filtering and a baffle for the return line. Discard the lid and the filler cap.
Then I cleaned up this reservior in a solvent tank and wire wheeled the upper lip of the reservior so I could weld to it later.
Now set that one to the side so you can work on the new top half.
Now take the donor reservior and cut the return hardline off the side of the reservior.
Then cut the bottom off the donor reservior.
Using a pair of pliers you can pry the filter ring, metal filter and metal ring baffle out of the reservior.
This should leave you with an empty top.
Deburr the cuts edges and wire wheel the bottom surface and around the return hardline for welding.
Plug weld the hole where the return hardline was in this new top half.
Now thoroughly clean and dry the two pieces and tack weld them together.
Then carefully weld the two pieces together and over lap your welds whenever you stop and start to make sure its a 100% weld. The lip on the lower half makes it real easy to weld the two piece together becasue its a filter weld instead of a butt weld.
Then I masked off the weld areas and painted them so they wouldn't rust.
Now you can reinstall the reservior and fill it up with ATF.
(FYI - Toyota Power Steering systems uses Dextron type ATF, NOT Power Steering Fluid)
As you can see it fits in the stock location and will clear the hood on 84-88/89 Toyotas, plus its now twice the size.
This modification only took me about an hour and I was really surprised at how easy it was once I started.
