WTB: part of power steering gear box

[72Dodge]

The kid that was trying to put a big block in my Mirada put a brand new power steering gear in it, then apparently realized that the pressure hose was going to run smack straight into his unnecessary custom big block mounts (that I'm going to cut out), so removed the pressure hose plate thing and just blocked it off. At least, that's the way I'm translating what's going on here. Unfortunately, I didn't find the missing part in the car, so.... I was going to convert it to manual, but now I'm getting ever cheaper with this car and don't want to spend the money for the Firm Feel adapter or similar.

I need:
- the part that is missing here to hook up to pressure hose.
- power steering pump (otherwise, I can buy this new from RockAuto pretty cheap)
- brackets/whatever else is needed to attach pump to a small block.
- PULLEY for the power steering pump... just realized the RockAuto ones don't come with it

Thanks!

See pic, this is what I have now:

 

[72Dodge]

AND... I am correct to assume that blocking off the fluid to a power steering gear like this is totally bogus, right? I mean, this is either going to be unsafe, hard-to-use, or short-lived (or some combination of all three), right?

 

[tim berry]

ill go with hard to use . can you plumb the hoses so they have no interference with that mount looks like you have room

 

[72Dodge]

The picture is deceiving. There's hardly any room at all. That doesn't really matter, since I'm removing those mounts either way. I just need that hose fitting to complete that box (and the other parts I listed).

Yeah, I can imagine it would be hard to use with no fluid going through it!

 

[72Dodge]

I just found a power steering pump, brackets, pulley, from a '70 Dart 318 in my shed. (Yeah, I have too much s***, I don't even know what all I have until I find it, like many of us, I'm sure). There's no reason that won't work, right? I know it's a different part #, and I don't know if the pulley was the same size, but I can't see any reason I can't make this work with an appropriate sized belt, or am I not thinking about something here?

 

[NoCar340]

Well, yes, you might be able to make it work. It depends on the fittings, really. The pulley should be right, they're geared more to the pump than the crank, and the offset is usually the same. However, if it's a Federal pump I'd keep looking and try to find a Saginaw, just because it's less likely to leak.

 

[72Dodge]

It's a Saginaw pump. It was working fine when I removed it from the car a few years back. I'm going to try to use it if I don't find anything else before then. Not much to lose. I'll check the fittings when I can get to the car (the hoses are in the trunk), which should be soon!

At minimum, I do still need the hose attachment piece from a power steering gear as shown in the first pic to make anything work, and all the rest too, just in case.

Thanks for the info!

 

[72Dodge]

Son of a biscuit. I was just out test fitting some things, and suddenly realized I cannot use my motor plate with a power steering pump. So now I have to decide which way to go here, but I'm pretty much 100% settled on using the motor plate, so I guess I'm going to have to order the stupid ridiculously priced FirmFeel manual steering adapter. I believe I have everything else necessary to convert to manual steering.

 

[NoCar340]

In your situation, this is what I would suggest:

You already have motor plates, so an isolated K-member is completely pointless unless you like sloppy handling. Solidly mount it with the aluminum parts available.
Get a manual steering box coupler from a junkyard, preferably with your manual box. Buy new guts; they're still available.
Cut the rag joint out of the steering column halves. It serves no function at this point anyhow with the solid-mount K.
Slide a piece of steel pipe over the cut-off upper & lower halves. Don't go crazy; .060" or .080" wall tubing is plenty. You don't need Schedule 80 pipe for this job.
Completely install the column with the coupler pinned to the box.
Position sleeve so it's centered over the cut where the rag joint was, and weld it solid to both halves.

If you really want to be anal about it, you could drill a couple of holes in the sleeve prior to putting it all together, so you could tack weld at those points too. Overkill, really, but better than underkill I suppose.

 

[jamf]

That's what I usually do.
I go to the local junk yard and get u-joint style couplers and make my own adapters.
A lot of times there are racks out of front wheel drives laying around
I take a factory coupler with me to try on whatever I find just to make sure it will match my splines, they match more often than not.
Got this borgeson joint off of a 1990 w250 for $5

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[72Dodge]

Thanks for the ideas guys. I'll probably get the car back into the garage next weekend and get going on this. I have the vast majority of what I need now to start putting the car back together. I was just out test-fitting everything onto the engine... looks like I thankfully have all the correct pulleys. Win!