Power Steering Conversion or...

[chevy_mike]

how to waste 2.5 days... In reality this should have been a 1 to 1 1/2 day project but it fought me tooth and nail all the way. I bought a bracket kit from Captainfab (board vendor). The bracket is well made and the instructions are detailed... just all of the measurements were off, at least for me. The made things very frustrating and time consuming but in the end I beat it and won the battle. Here is what I went thru all in the name of gaining power steering.

Things started simple, here is the old manual box waiting removal.


Steering shaft cut per instructions, box removed. Making progress.


Bracket located per instructions (which had updated, hand written measurements that were suppose to work better based on other people input), holes drilled and stitched welded to the frame. That sucker is not moving.


Rebuilt mid '70's box mounted to said bracket... Houston we have a problem!!! As you can see, the box splined shaft is not even pointing in the same plane as the steering shaft. Crap!!! After pondering a fire bomb, I cut all of my stitch welds and removed said bracket. At this point my picture taking became minimal as I was working on solving the problem. I ended up placing the bracket on the box, marking the centerline of the shaft and started to figure out where the bracket needed to be on the frame.


Getting it where it needed to be and close to Captainfab's original measurements, I got the shaft lined up and the center link is level and parallel to the crossmember. Okay, things are going well now but I am out of daylight. Tomorrow the steering hook up!


Next morning I get started on drilling out the old flange off the cut steering shaft, so it can be welded back on. I place the rag coupler on, then the flange... Houston, here we go again. As you can see by the daylight between the two, the shaft is about an 1" too short (again cut per instructions and double checked).


Went out and got some thick wall DOM tubing and was going to make an adapter like most other kits use. As I was thinking about it, I decided that I could place the cut off piece back into the flange, weld it from underneath and plug weld onto the shaft. I made the tubing sleeve 5" long so it slide up the steering column shaft about 4.5".


Flange from underneath and again, got busy figuring this out and not taking as many pictures.


Here is "my" adapter plug welded on the shaft and top and bottom of the tubing sleeve. I have no doubt this will be strong. Forgot to take pics painted.


Used my pump I removed from my '68 and modified the short pump bracket to work with a long pump. 3 washers welded onto the area mounting to the engine block and cut and welded the rear arm that bolts to the motor mount. Pulley lines up with the middle crank pulley. Took me 3, yes 3 trips to the auto parts store to finally get the right belt. Went from way too short, to almost there, to just right. Filled the system, bled, bled and bled the system. Took a little more than a quart of fluid. No leaks!!! Used a '70 high pressure hose which worked perfect.


I still need to get an alignment (which I need from dropped spindles) and then re-center the steering wheel, this project is done. Was it worth all the hassles and frustration? Heck ya!!! Man it is nice to one hand the steering while being able to shift with the other hand. I have been PM'ing Captainfab with my issues and suggestions so hopefully no one else will go thru this. Luckily I have a very well equipped garage so I had the resources to handle these issues. A hand tool only type garage would have been SOL big time.

Hope others find this helpful.

[Captainfab]

I appologize for your frustration and thank you for your patience Mike. I appreciate the pictures as this allows me to see a couple issues I need to address in the installation instructions.

[chevy_mike]

No problem. Glad I was able to get it done before the rains start again (tonight). Like I said in my PM, I like your product because it keeps all four mounting bolts on the frame and doesn't require drilling out one of the steering box threaded holes, like other kits. Just need to get the instructions squared away.

BTW, a suggesting for a reference point that could be more common and less prone to crossmember swaps, dirt build up, etc. would be to take a small square and draw a line vertical on the frame behind the oval frame hole. The lower part of the frame, behind this area looks to be flat (since the crossmember bolts to this area) and that would give everyone a common measuring reference point versus using two different points of reference as your instructions show. Just an idea for ya.

[LostMy65]

I'll be watching your progress.

I just ordered one myself.

Captainfab asked me to look at your thread before I purchased.

I figured I will c-clamp and test fit before cutting/welding/drilling.

Thanks for the heads up.
And thank you Captainfab, for making me aware of this thread before I purchased.

[chevy_mike]

Originally Posted by LostMy65

I'll be watching your progress.


I figured I will c-clamp and test fit before cutting/welding/drilling.

Yeah, that's what I normally would do but as you will find, this is not easy to do, especially if you still have the front clip on. As it was, for my second test fit (having drilled two of the four holes) I had to ask my wife to help thread the bolts in as I couldn't hold the bracket, box AND try to get the bolts to line up let alone thread in.

BTW, one trick I found is to take a 1 1/4" (IIRC) bolt and thread it into the steering box, rear upper hole, from the outside so it points at the frame. This allows you to "hang" some of the weight in the upper bracket hole while lining up the others. Then once you get the other 3 started, you can back that one out.

Sure would have been a lot easier with the clip off but wasn't about to do that to a running truck. LOL

[mr andrerson]

subscibed!

[jchav62]

Awesome work! I played a little hell installing the same setup on the '65. Don't get me wrong, Captfab makes a beautiful piece with some great instructions, but the measurements did not work out for me neither. Everything seemed to line up, but in the end when I hooked up the drag link to the pitman arm, the drag link rubbed on the crossmember. After several attempts at grinding the crossmember and the drag link to give it some clearance, I ended up moving the idler arm position forward about a 1/4". That solved the problem and it didn't affect the steering geometry at all. We are very happy with the results...

[rustbucket66]

Thanks for posting this, and the pictures are helpful. I am running into some of the same problems. My steering shaft is too short by about an inch, and I like how you corrected it. Doing it that way eliminates the runout you might get from just welding a piece onto the shaft. I really don't want to take the column out of the truck, and your method is the best way to fix it. I have a different kit to fasten the steering box to the frame, and it didn't give any alignment problems, but it still was too short for the steering shaft to reach it. Thanks again.