Ford Bronco Severe Duty Steering Upgrade Kit Revealed

murphtron

Any ideas why this isn’t compatible with non-SAS? Makes no sense to me. Very odd. And what if I’ve added 35s on my own?

We don't know for sure, but I'm fairly certain it has something to do with programming. The steps require you to plug in the ProCal and pull the factory steering rack configuration off the vehicle before you install the new steering rack.

It would not at all surprise me if they are just taking the factory steering rack configuration off and loading it onto the new rack. And if that's the case, then there is obviously something different about the non-Sas 4-door steering rack that makes it incompatible with this rack. Different motor, or teeth count or... something.

Took some doing but I finally found a Ford dealer to order and install. I can use pass points and a Ford dealer.
Now will it make it in time for Moab

I just finished installing the Hoss 3 on my 2023 Badlands 4 door Sasquatch. Test drove it today and all seemed fine, except on startup I get a "Steering Assist Fault Service Required" warning. However, the Procal4 shows no DTCs and I noticed no problems driving. I followed the directions (such as they are) and backed up the ECU on the Procal4 and then reinstalled it after I finished installing the steering gear. Maybe it will go away after I drive it a while but I will call Ford's technical service line tomorrow to ask about it.

I never would have attempted this if I had not seen this video showing how to remove the differential carrier to gain extra room to maneuver the steering gear around. The Ford service manual says to first remove the front differential and axles, and no way I was going to do that.


To gain extra room I had to remove the inner and outer tie rods from the driver's side and the outer tie rod from the passenger side. The boot on the inner tie rod is slightly larger than the stock tie rod. I could not find the proper size metal strap replacement at the local auto supply stores so for now a zip tie will have to suffice.

At times I had my doubts about being able to get this done. The two large bolts that hold the steering gear apparently were installed at the factory with atomic loctite. Even with my breaker bar I found them impossible to budge. Finally, I was able to do so little by little with a lot of heat from a torch to soften up the loctite. And I had to buy an extra-large crescent wrench to hold the big square rubber-covered nut on the end of each of the huge bolts.

The next most difficult part was removing the 10mm bolt from the steering column shaft that connects to the steering gear. Again it had atomic loctite. The torch helped, but there is very little space to work up there and I highly recommend a flexhead 10mm ratchet that will allow you to get the right angle on the bolt head. Still, I had visions of rounding off the bolt head and being in a really bad way. Luckily, I finally got it off.

Out of excess of caution I replaced all the bolts with news one, as the Service Manual insists.

While I was under the Bronco (jack stands) I also changed the front diff gear oil and the transfer case oil.

Off tomorrow to get an alignment, although it is driving straight and true. Then maybe sometime soon a trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas to see if all this was worth it.

Tim

ztlm39

I just finished installing the Hoss 3 on my 2023 Badlands 4 door Sasquatch. Test drove it today and all seemed fine, except on startup I get a "Steering Assist Fault Service Required" warning. However, the Procal4 shows no DTCs and I noticed no problems driving. I followed the directions (such as they are) and backed up the ECU on the Procal4 and then reinstalled it after I finished installing the steering gear. Maybe it will go away after I drive it a while but I will call Ford's technical service line tomorrow to ask about it.

I never would have attempted this if I had not seen this video showing how to remove the differential carrier to gain extra room to maneuver the steering gear around. The Ford service manual says to first remove the front differential and axles, and no way I was going to do that.

To gain extra room I had to remove the inner and outer tie rods from the driver's side and the outer tie rod from the passenger side. The boot on the inner tie rod is slightly larger than the stock tie rod. I could not find the proper size metal strap replacement at the local auto supply stores so for now a zip tie will have to suffice.

At times I had my doubts about being able to get this done. The two large bolts that hold the steering gear apparently were installed at the factory with atomic loctite. Even with my breaker bar I found them impossible to budge. Finally, I was able to do so little by little with a lot of heat from a torch to soften up the loctite. And I had to buy an extra-large crescent wrench to hold the big square rubber-covered nut on the end of each of the huge bolts.

The next most difficult part was removing the 10mm bolt from the steering column shaft that connects to the steering gear. Again it had atomic loctite. The torch helped, but there is very little space to work up there and I highly recommend a flexhead 10mm ratchet that will allow you to get the right angle on the bolt head. Still, I had visions of rounding off the bolt head and being in a really bad way. Luckily, I finally got it off.

Out of excess of caution I replaced all the bolts with news one, as the Service Manual insists.

While I was under the Bronco (jack stands) I also changed the front diff gear oil and the transfer case oil.

Off tomorrow to get an alignment, although it is driving straight and true. Then maybe sometime soon a trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas to see if all this was worth it.

Tim

Thanks for sharing this with us. I'll be anxious to see if you loose the fault code or if technical assistance helps solve it.
Mine hasn't arrived yet and the closer I get to a trip I don't want to be stuck mid repair

I’m waiting on my HOSS 3.0 rack to ship.

I have a trip to Moab planned in 2.5 weeks and am pretty sure I will not have it installed before the trip. I’ve seen lots of issues getting everything to work. I do not want to do it the weekend before the trip, have something go wrong and not be able to go on the trip.

So the rather unsettling news from Ford Performance tech support is that the HOSS 3 was released before it was supposed to be, and they are having lots of issues in the last 10 days. He said the software engineering was not completed, and that there are no instructions for the install yet. He seemed surprised that I had installed the steering gear and that my Bronco was running. He also said I was lucky that I did not have a tune, or it probably would not be running at all.

The service tech asked me to send him right away the Device Info, the Module Info, and my VIN from the Procal4 so their software engineer could try and figure out a way to tell the vehicle that it has a new steering gear.

Oh what fun. The perils of early upgrading.

With all these problems, I don't understand why the steering gear is still on the website as of this morning.

https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-3200-WT

They are backordered so presumably the fix will be in before they start shipping again.

ztlm39

So the rather unsettling news from Ford Performance tech support is that the HOSS 3 was released before it was supposed to be, and they are having lots of issues in the last 10 days. He said the software engineering was not completed, and that there are no instructions for the install yet. He seemed surprised that I had installed the steering gear and that my Bronco was running. He also said I was lucky that I did not have a tune, or it probably would not be running at all.

The service tech asked me to send him right away the Device Info, the Module Info, and my VIN from the Procal4 so their software engineer could try and figure out a way to tell the vehicle that it has a new steering gear.

Oh what fun. The perils of early upgrading.

Wow, that's not good. I guess I'm okay with mine not getting here yet. Now there is no way I would install it a couple weeks out from a week long bronco trip.

Lots O Fords

Wow, that's not good. I guess I'm okay with mine not getting here yet. Now there is no way I would install it a couple weeks out from a week long bronco trip.

Yup….dont want to take a chance on missing a trip to Moab.

UPS says mine is “supposed” to be here tomorrow. But……it doesn’t show that it’s shipped yet. 🤔

SlashRacer

Yup….dont want to take a chance on missing a trip to Moab.

UPS says mine is “supposed” to be here tomorrow. But……it doesn’t show that it’s shipped yet. 🤔

If it shows, seems a call to tec service to make sure its resolved should be step 1. I was going to have a Ford dealer install mine and now I may want to wait for the first ginny pig to have theirs done.

Have been sending information from my ProCal4 to the software engineer today, but so far the fault warning still shows on startup. It drives ok, but I figure better safe than sorry by not driving it for now.

It seems they thought doing a CDP Learn on the ProCal4 might identify the new steering gear, but that did not work.

I could be wrong here but I believe there are certain "vital" Fault codes that the Procal can not clear... I believe this is one of those codes.... Works great, runs great, just can not clear the code... Ford dealer could though, and I bet if they did it would not return.

I hope the software engineer can figure out a way for me to clear the Steering Assist Fault warning, as I hope they want owners to be able to install this upgrade without having to go to a dealer. Maybe they can send me some code to install in the ECU that properly identifies the HOSS 3.

The guys at Galpin Auto Sports were putting one on last week. They said they haven't had that many orders for them yet. I think I'll wait to save up some cash and pay them to install it. I could probably handle the nuts and bolts of it, but when it comes to electronics and ECUs, I'm disastrous.

I ordered mine from San Tan Ford. The guy said right after I ordered mine, which was the first he knew about it, he has gotten several more orders.

EriktheCabonizedGray

The guys at Galpin Auto Sports were putting one on last week. They said they haven't had that many orders for them yet. I think I'll wait to save up some cash and pay them to install it. I could probably handle the nuts and bolts of it, but when it comes to electronics and ECUs, I'm disastrous.

Which Galpin Autosports location are you working with?

JoergH

Which Galpin Autosports location are you working with?

The one in Van Nuys CA.

EriktheCabonizedGray

The one in Van Nuys CA.

Yup, that's right down the hill from me, I'm in Santa Clarita. So are they good to work with?