Well here is my progress as of tonight. Welded a 1/2" grade 8 n.f. bolt to the end of my ps cylinder, cleaned up the welds on both the ram and cylinder tube for mounting purposes. Cut and threaded my drag link from 1/2" cold round, built the mounting bracket for the other end of the ps cylinder to mount on, installed the parts and tested the range of motion.
I am quite pleased with the results as followed. I achieved end stop to end stop turning, and have full range of motion with the steering maxed out left to right and visa with the axle resting on each pivot stop WITHOUT any one part interfering with another. I then attached the sub frame of my mower deck and again, it fit without any interference with my modifications. YAY!!
Good news so far, but it has yet to be tested hydraulically. I still need to beautify my mounting brackets, finnish plumbing the hydraulic outlets, and re-install the engine before that can happen.
Nightow1 was nice enough to snap some high res pix for me to share since I was nice enough to let him use my plasma torch! The close up of the axle on the r.h. side (from the seat) is to show the tighter steering turning right that is somewhat difficult to achieve with a standard oem setup.
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