I found this tank on ebay

1 5QUART Universal Washer Hydraulic Fluid Powersteering Gas Water Tank Reservoir | eBay

This vendor is local and he will tap the tank with a barbed fitting.

So does anybody know either the fitting size or the inside diameter of the hoses?

I also have to see if there is room for the tank.

 

If you backtrack in this thread Dennis has detailed the fitting size.

5qt is huge for this application IMHO.

 

Its a 1.5 quart the smallest he makes. Which still may be to big for the space. I would think you would only need a small amount of fluid. I am still looking for something smaller

 

Sorry, my mistake I read 1 5qt.

 

I think something on the order of 4, rather than 40, ounces would be enough here. Not that much room to work with. I'll post a picture of my water-bottle kluge tomorrow. No snickering!

 

I found a lot of very small tanks 4 oz or 6 oz used in rc planes and cars. If possible could you measure the inside diameter of the hoses? Thanks

 

OK, so we were talking about fitting a proper reservoir. I'd first like to step back for a minute and say ...
There are only slim reasons to believe using a reservoir is beneficial in the first place.

The manual-latch mod works just as well with the hoses left open-ended in some sort of fluid catcher. Then why a reservoir? While modifying my own car I thought well maybe it would be worthwhile to keep fluid in the abandoned hoses and on the seals in the latch, since I will want to use them again down the road. Hence a reservoir, instead of just letting the hoses drain.

Is this needed or even beneficial? I honestly don't know but it was easy to do (in a crude way) so I figured "couldn't hurt" and went that way.

But I would hate to see what is now a simple $6.00 mod get too complex pursuing a really well-designed reservoir, which may or may not be actually doing any good.

All that said, please see below the prototype's water-bottle reservoir. (Engineers, avert your eyes.) The hose ends are submerged in a few ounces of fluid. A sort of dust cap covers the bottle mouth. Elegant it ain't, but everything rides quite securely in there and I think it will stay put indefinitely ... until it's time to remove it and reconnect my in-tact hoses to the pump. (If you have failed hoses, it doesn't make sense to fit a reservoir, just a fluid catcher. The same arrangement would work for that, leaving out the fluid pool in the bottom of the bottle.)

Probably a hundred designs better than this can be found but, again, how much time and money does it make sense to expend here?


Note to Lorwood: info on the fitting sizes is found at the "manual latch" link within my signature line below.

 

Your "crude" design has one big advantage to trying to put in a more "elegant" reservoir design with fittings. When and if you wish to re-attach your hoses to the pump you can simply pull them out of the top without having to drain the reservoir first.

So I think you are correct in this case, simple is better.

 

I guess I’m a little confused, on the fighting pressure/ vacuum issue with the latch hoses capped. Since there are the only two hoses connected to the latch assembly, where is the potential for over pressure, vacuum issue coming from?

 

If the hoses are plugged and filled with fluid then there is no place for the fluid to go when displaced by the movement of the latch. Under normal operations the reservoir would act as the "overflow" point. This is why the reservoir is not filled to the top on the hydraulic pump. So the concern may be that with the latched closed under pressure it could open unexpectedly while driving.

I think this is correct but feel free to correct me if I am wrong

 

Since my latch hose ruptured at the reservoir, and both are now disconnected, there is no fluid going to the latch, hence the necessity to manually open and close the latch with the Allen wrench. I plugged the hoses to keep them from any residual fluid leakage/dirt.

 

Hunter,

If both hoses are broken, I see no problem here as pressure can't be created in either one. But if either hose is in tact and now plugged, I think there could be a problem. Reason being ...

Take a look please at the schematic of a hydraulic piston below. One such as this drives the latch, by hydraulic pressure, in normal operation, and is driven by the latch when we operate it manually. Hydraulic fluid is incompressible, so when that shaft and piston move there must be fluid flow into one of the piston's two ports, and flow out of the other port. If either port is connected to an in-tact, full-of-fluid, plugged hose then movement is not possible since there is nowhere for fluid to flow to. (One exception: the hose could stretch to take up the flow if it is capable.)

If the hoses have some air in them then piston movement is possible (since air is compressible) but only by building up pressure in the hose we're pushing into, and creating vacuum in the hose we're pulling from.

This is not an ideal situation, which is why I'm not so sure plugging the hoses is a good idea generally. But if your system is working OK, I'm not about to argue with success!

OK?

 

I see what you are saying. When I return from my business trip next week, I’ll have a buddy cycle the latch, and I’ll check the hoses (unplugged), to see if there is any fluid flow, or a vacuum created. I’ll report the results when I’m finished.

 

Dennis just finished the mod and it is working flawlessly. From my perspective this is the most cost effective and surest way to avoid the green shower.

A few observations.

My latch moves freely enough that I never have to use two hands. Once I turn the Allen key the movement of the top is enough to pull or push the latch. I do not know if lubricating the latch would help those who may need to give things a little push.

While the system is no longer fully automatic, for me the knowledge that it is no longer possible to have a green shower is well worth a quarter turn of an Allen wrench.

Many many thanks.

 

Just finished my mod too. Heres a pic.

 

Did my testing over the weekend. No fluid out of either hose,(lower one is the one with the break in it) and a slight puff of air from the upper. One side note, I tried raising the top, without first moving the latch into the open position, and the top didn’t move. Before I realized this was the case, I thought something else had gone wrong with the system. Is there a micro switch at the latch, that senses the position, locking out the top raising and lowering?

 

Thanks much, Hunter, for the info. Until the system senses that the latch is open, it does not apply pressure to the hydraulic circuit that raises the top. Then, while the top is being raised both the ram and latch circuits are pressurized ... the former moving the top, the latter holding the latch in the open position.

Just from memory, yes, I think it is a microswitch that senses latch-open. But however it's done the latch must be open for the rest of the operation to go forward.

 

just ordered 3 extra sets from Maloney. I live in Wilmington De. area, if interested.

 

Also did the conversion, works great!

 

Ready to do it, but a little relunctant, as top is working so well. But I have the old hoses and know it just a matter of time.(even tho I have the relief valve). One question........ You say the pump may come on sometimes, thinking it needs to close the latch? When may this happen? Could you expand on that.........And again, Thanks for you'r work on this project!