Hiya Pete,
Here is what I have done several times, although never on a 1963.
1. Find an engine like mine with all the stuff on it I need. This is almost exclusively an engine based update, but there is one piece you'll have to buy or make . . . the 1/4" spacer which goes behind the steering box on the pre-1967 trucks! Get everything off the doner including the pulleys and belts, the bolts and nuts, the frame clamp for the lines, etc. There are also a couple of spacers that go between/behind brackets that are way easy to drop. Get the year model of the doner truck so you can get parts later on.
2. get your goodies home and clean them up and paint them as you choose. You don't need me to remind you about safety, just do it! If you want all new stuff now you have cores, but the Saginaw boxes are built like a tank, and 40 year old ones usually work as well as the remans at the parts houses. Do get a couple of quarts of a good quality compatible PS fluid AND new idler and pitman arms.
3. Look at your crankshaft pulley and compare the belt grooves to the new one to see if you need to change it. I have always had to change the water pump pulley but yours may be different. Test fit the mounting bracket for the pump and the bracket that goes on the pump. One bolts to the block and one is a saddle for the pump.You'll see how this stuff fits.
Unless I am mistaken, PS wasn't available until the following year in the "C" series, so use the year of the doner truck for buying parts for the PS.
Now one SUPER important thing for junk yard scronging, EXACTLY which engine do you have? Since you said 230, and that would be correct for your 1963, you would use the early brackets. When GM changed the head on the 250 in 1974 they also changed brackets.
The 230 and 250 are the same block with different innards so they look alike from the outside, except for the funky, later model heads. Got all that?
That's it except for the install. The spacer plate I mentioned earlier is so a hump on the back of the steering box will clear the frame. The later trucks have a "dent" in the frame to clear it. On the first crank-up of the new system put something over your alternator to keep any leaks off. You can imagine HOW I know this. I always replace the idler arm as well as the pitman arm. The pitman arm MUST be replaced due to length and that means the idler is the wrong length, too. No other front end parts have to be changed, but this is a great time to do so!
This is also a perfect time to add a front sway bar. The last one I got came off a late 1980s 'burb. I didn't pay squat for it!
Not like the 3-4 hundred ones on line.
See
http://s1109.beta.photobucket.com/u.../compairbrackets.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2 for pictures of the brackets. Also if you poke around in the panel truck pics, you will find pictures of my PS installation on my '69 C-20.
Let me know if I can help in any way.
best wishes,
Les
