131 0208 Ram 06 Z - Photo 9031744

Back to Article

The ram for our system is the 2-inch-bore mutha on the bottom. Our system required an 8-inch stroke, but Howe can make it shorter if you need. The 1 1/2-inch bore ram on top doesn't require as much fluid and, therefore, is more responsive during quick emergency maneuvers. It's the choice for the weekend warrior that sees a lot of street driving.

131 0208 ram 01 z

131 0208 ram 01 z

We dropped our incredibly scuzzy pump and box off at Howe Performance for hotrodding. Howe thoroughly cleaned the pieces in a media blaster, removed the teardrop reservoir from the pump, and magnafluxed the box case and sector shaft to make sure they weren't cracked.

Our modified pump on the left now puts out 3.5 gph, up from 2.0 gph, and has AN inlet and outlet fittings. The stock pump on the right has a little more fluid capacity than the stock Saginaw teardrop reservoir, but neither comes close to matching the capacity of the Howe remote reservoir.

Here's our box (right) after magnafluxing, a full rebuild, and having the flow at the control valve increased. The -6 and -8 AN fittings on the top of the box are for the inlet and outlet. The -6 AN fittings on the side at the control valve go to the ram. Howe machines off the casting that covers the lower bolt holes so you can put nuts on the back for extra strength.

If you don't want to have your stock pump hotrodded, you have other choices. From left to right are Howe's TC pump that puts out 3.5 gph, its High Volume "Trophy Truck" pump that puts out 6.5 gph, and the remote reservoir with and without the spin-on filter.

The ram for our system is the 2-inch-bore mutha on the bottom. Our system required an 8-inch stroke, but Howe can make it shorter if you need. The 1 1/2-inch bore ram on top doesn't require as much fluid and, therefore, is more responsive during quick emergency maneuvers. It's the choice for the weekend warrior that sees a lot of street driving.

We decided to box the frame at the mount, then run 1-inch DOM tubing through the frame to the box-mounting holes. We first drilled out the mounting holes in our frame to 1 inch.

Next, we cut out a 3/16-inch reinforcement plate for the back of the frame. We rough-cut four lengths of tubing and stuck them through the frame and marked where they touched the reinforcement plate, then drilled the corresponding holes in the plate.

Before welding anything, we bolted the box to the tubing with the reinforcement plate on the back of the frame. When everything looked good, we tacked it in and removed the box before making final welds.

The 3/4-inch QA1 rod end is dwarfed by the rest of the Avalanche Engineering tie rod. It is 1 1/2-inch DOM tubing sleeved with 1 3/4-inch DOM that's fully powdercoated. We've seen axletubes that aren't this beefy.

Since our steering arms were tapered for tie rod ends, we needed to drill them out to 3/4-inch for the rod end bolts. Rather than use a regular 3/4-inch drill bit that grabs and jerks the drill out of your hands, we used a 3/4-inch countersink bit. It not only self-centers as it cuts, but it chews through steering arms like butter.

Here's our Avalanche Engineering tie rod with the Howe ram installed. When installing the ram you need to make sure it doesn't hit anything on your frame, axle, or suspension. Ideally the ram will operate parallel to the tie rod and not at an angle. Otherwise, the stroke of the ram won't equal the stroke of the tie rod. The result can be funny steering.

131 0208 ram 13 z