Why such long hoses in Power Steering system?

Hey guys. I'm still doing the rebuild on the '93 manual.

With everything out of the engine bay. (EVERYTHING). I notieced that the power steering hoses run an obnoxious length back and forth across the front of the car. So.. Why??

I was going to place a larger cooler on the driver's side, thereby cutting down on the low pressure return hoses running across the front of the car, and was also thinking of replacing the high pressure side with a much shorter hose that goes directly from the powersteering pump to the rack. Thereby avoiding the problem of a sagging engine mount causing the oil pan to rub through the power steering line.

Anyone know why we have/need so much hose going back and forth across the front of the car?

It's due to the stock location for the P/S cooler. Due to the I/C tubing on the driver's side apparently they felt the need to put it on the passenger side.

Just a thought: The longer the lines to the P/S cooler the more surface area for cooling the fluid.

Mike: I can understand that for the cooler, but I still don't get why the high pressure line needs so much pipe?

J.D.: Yeah, I was guessing that maybe ford had a bunch of these small power steering coolers left over from some other car, and just decided to use them up on the SC. if so, then moving it over to the other side of the car with a bigger cooler (in the flow of air) would negate the need for extra hose.