Power Steering kit for a 3000, recommendations please

[MDW]

I'm considering an aftermarket PS add to my 65, 3000D. I would appreciate hearing about any experiences. Looking on Ebay there are a few sellers and the price varies some. Are all these kits from the same place and of the same quality? Seller Bill Crafton seems consistently to have the best price. Anyone know a better kit, better price, or other place I should be considering?

Thanks .. MDW

 

[Ultradog MN]

I've never used or even see one of those aftermarket PS systems so can not reply to their quality or effectiveness.
I can however give a thumbs up to ebay seller BillCrafton. I have bought a lot of parts from them over the past couple of years and they have always done well by me. They do not sell the vast array of parts like Yesterdays Tractors does but the items they sell are usually about 60% of the price of everyone else for the same exact parts. What I do though is skip Ebay in the process and go straight to them. It keeps him from paying those ebay fees.
I just call them, ask for the person who sells the Ebay tractor parts and order on the phone with a credit card. Nice lady there will take your order. I heard they were going to stop selling the stuff on Ebay once their stock of parts was gone. That would be a shame.
For example Bill Crafton sells a fuel tank for a 3 cyl 4000 for $80 while YT and most other sellers get $137 for the same tank.
Their number is 573 323 8753 M-F
Parts page takes a while to load

 

[Fordfarmer]

I bought one of the kits from Bill Crafton a few
years ago for a '67 3000 diesel I had at the time. I
traded it before I used it much, but it was a
straight forward installation, and worked nicely.
I'll second Ultra's comments abuot Bill Crafton.

 

[sotxbill]

they are made in turkey and work fair. they are power assist and not true power steering. If you try to steer fast, you will out run the power feature and have hard steering.

That said, however they work well and hold up. They have been around for a long time and parts are available.

The factory power assist steering is not a lot better and all the same things can be said about it, except it is much more expensive to install and repair. I have bought used factory steering units and installed them and had to still replace more parts to finally get them working right.

Now I just get the turkey units bolt them on and go with them.

 

[MDW]

Thanks Gentlemen, that's exactly the information I was looking for.
MDW

 

[MDW]

I got the kit from Crafton. Nice people to deal with and saved a little by taking Ultradog's route. Thanks UD.

I hope to get time to put it on next week. I have a couple of questions for the more experienced.

It looks like the supply hose from the reservoir will run between the back of the generator and real close to the manifold. Anyone ever had a problem from the heat on that hose? The photo on the instruction sheet shows a tractor with an alternator. The alternator is short and would allow more room.

The instructions are quite brief and a little might be lost in translation. It said "After mounting use special sae 10 or 20 to start the engine and check oil level add some more if necessary." So what type oil do you think they want used?

Mounting the main cylinder bracket required backing out the studs that the radius arm socket mounts with in order to get enough length to replace the nuts. Will this make the radius arm anchor weak?

The kit includes an extension piece (I think for the cylinder rod) with a tag that indicates to use if you have a flat axel. I'm not sure if I have a flat axel or not?