P6B power steering hoses realignment

[mikecoombs]

Now that spring has arrived i'm doing some more work on my P6B...I'm wondering if anyone on here knows why the pump feed line goes around three sides of the engine bay and why the high pressure line from pump to steering box only has a short metal pipe on it and is made up of two different sized flexible lines joined together. The latter issue applies to both left hand and right hand drive arrangements??

I'm planning on replacing the pump feed line with Aluminium pipe and possibly the HP line with steel pipe. Both will have a short rubber section prior to going into the pump to allow the engine to move.

I figure the circuitous route for the feed line is so it can run in front of the radiator for cooling, but I don't think it would be that much...

Michael

 

[mrtask]

I dimly recall reading or hearing that the length of the power steering hoses served to keep the fluid cool.

 

[mikecoombs]

Yes, that is my reasoning too. The HP hose issue is the most confounding. I'm currently thinking the pump fitting is designed for the larger hose fitting size while the steering box uses the smaller hose size. Rather than change the box or pump fitting, creating an orphan product at higher expense, they joined the two hose sizes together...small one end big the other...