Adding power steering to a 63

[Mack B]

So I know this has been beat to death, and I just wanted some more opinions. First, ill be getting my bracket from captain fab. Do most of you get a remanufactored box or one from a junk yard? Just curious if these things typically wear out, my example is the 50 year old box on the truck now is sound just a nightmare to get in and out of my garage (think 12 point turn) second this truck has what I believe to be the original 283, did the 73-87 trucks use short water pumps? Just wanted to see if I could get everything off the same donor if I go that route. In searching I found out about the sae and metric boxes, any advantage or disadvantage of either?
Pic because everyone loves pics

[Fastest32]

Sweet looking truck! I got mine off of the same 78 I got all the disc brake stuff from. Doesn't leak and works great. Mine has a 250 so can't really help with the water pump info.

[Mack B]

Thank you sir, this old turd just photos good

[Captainfab]

The '73 and up trucks all had long water pumps. You will need the pump, brackets and pulleys from a '72 and earlier pickup or a '68 and earlier car with a small block.

As for the steering box, the box I put on my Suburban was a used box and I've put over 120,000 miles on it and the seals are just starting to seep a little. I would say that, that is probably an exception, but if you find a used steering box, that doesen't appear to be leaking from either shaft, I would give it a try if you feel inclined.

I have not found any noticeable advantage of one fitting style over the other. I just recommend getting a box and a pump with the same style of fittings, That way you can use an off the shelf pressure hose. The pressure fitting in the back of the pump can be changed......but you have to have another pump to get a different one from.

[Mack B]

Thanks Cap'n. now I know what to look for, I'm waiting on some ebay money then ill pm you about a bracket. Thanks again

[Mack B]

My truck doesn't have a balancer, just a hub with a three(?) groove pulley, I plan to one day add a/c to this truck as well (bubba get hot). Will I have to replace the hub with a balancer or will a standard 2 groove water pump pulley and power steering pulley line up with this?

[Captainfab]

That crank pulley will work just fine. the power steering pump pulley will line up with the crank pulley furthest out. When you add AC, you will need the 2 groove WP pulley. Then the AC will drive off of the middle groove on the crank pulley.

Yeah, the 283's didn't really have much for a balancer. It is more of just a hub as you said.

[Mack B]

Thanks again cap'n, you are an asset to this site!

[Mack B]

Well I spent the morning getting a box, pitman arm, drag link, idler arm & bracket, rag joint and intermediate shaft off of an 87 Silverado got it all for $125.00. The truck was sitting on the spindles in the dirt so I left the tie rods. Everything looks useable except the idler arm has a good bit of slop in it.
I asked earlier if there was an advantage over metric/sae, in my research I've found that remanufactured sae boxes are a good bit cheaper with lower core charges.
Here is my loot


This place is 20 minutes from my house and packed with square body's and mid 90s chevy trucks, while wandering around I came up on this

This bedside was prett decent rust wise but bent pretty good, other side was straight as an arrow but rusted away at the seam.

[LostMy65]

got steering box from a junkyard.
No issues.
I figured if it gave me issues, I could use it for the core charge if I needed to buy new.