The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop P/S & P/B Upgrade for a '63

I've been scavenging parts for a long overdue upgrade to power steering and power brakes on my '63 but decided I'd better run it by the gurus here before jumping into it. Here's the way the truck sits today...

Strong running 230 cid L6 with HEI, stock intake, stock exhaust, stock 4 wheel drum brakes, stock steering, new brake lines front to rear.

The parts I've scavenged from a '79 P/up...

power steering gear / pitman arm, power steering pump, front spindles, 12 bolt rear axle, vaccuum booster / master cylinder, combination valve, all A/C parts from under the hood, gas pedal.

Parts I've acquired from other sources...

Power steering pump bracket, ball joints ('79), tie rod ends ('79), inner & outer wheel bearings / grease seals ('79), brake calipers / pads.

I still need to order the power steering adapter kit from Chevy Duty or CPP, but I am just about ready to start this project. I've rebuilt the steering gear and pump, cleaned and painted all of the parts and gone over this all in my head a couple of hundred times while sitting in the garage staring at the truck. The P/S upgrade seems pretty straight forward from what I've read and hopefully will just entail mounting the new gear and pump, adjusting the column length and then hooking up the pump to the gear. The plan for the brakes is to install the booster / MC from the '79 along with the front spindles. I'm thinking that I'll have the original axles re-drilled for 5 bolt and take the self adjusting brake hookup off the '79 rear axle instead of swapping axles. I know that there are folks that fequent this site that have done this or something similar...anything special to watch out for or words of advice?

Morris, I have had no luck locating a 6 cylinder PS pump bracket but I guess you have found one. The power steering swap using a REZ kit is simple & straighforward, you need a HD drill & a good 1/2" bit IIRC. Use the 79 pitman arm. The spindles will either require the draglink assy from the 79(cheapest & prolly easiest, you will have to redrill the idler arm mount) or some adapter sleeves from CPP, or you can mix & match some tie rod ends around-there is a diff in the spindle holes where the tie rods bolt & the tie rods ends that fit are larger than the drum brake tie rods threadwise. If the machine shop wants too much to redrill axles or if you have wheels you wanna keep you can buy 6 lug rotors from CPP or ECE. I used 71/72 front brake hoses. Brian

Brian...thanks for the comments. I'll go back to the truck tomorrow and get the entire tie rod assembly so that I can see which one will fit best. I want to go to 5 lug wheels, but I can't seem to find any reliable axle swap information without changing the whole rearend, so I'm going to have my current axles re-drilled and swap in the self adjusting rear drums from the '79.

Morris, you can use a 71-72(5 lug w/coils) rear end, will bolt directly in but they are kinda hard to find @times. Brian

I finished my chassis last week on my 65. I swapped in goodies from a 84 C10. I swapped the whole spindle- disc brakes and all. It just required '84 ball joints. I bolted in the PS box. I made a template and drilled the holes, added a few spacers and bolted it in. Same tie rods work. (63-87 C10's had essentially the same front end) The hard part was the rea. I went from the factory 12 bolt, to a 10 bolt with posi. That meant making new axle perches and track bar mount. Try and find the same rear only newer. Swap in the internals- lot easier. Just ask if you have any other questions. Jim

kruizeag...thanks. I'm going to keep the factory 3.73 rear end for precisely the reasons you mentioned. I found a shop in the area that will re-drill my axles to 5 bolt so I'm just going to steal some parts of the '79 to make it work. I might would swap to a '71-72 like Brian suggests above if I could find the right one, but my luck at finding "just the right part" for this project has so far been not real good.

An interesting update...The truck I pulled all of the parts off of had been rolled at some point in the past and relegated to a field. This afternoon I decided to start pulling the drums, etc off the rear axle and the brake parts were in excellent condition...the shoes looked like they had just been installed when the truck was rolled. Upon closer inspection it became apparent why they looked new. Whoever installed them forgot to put the push rods back in the wheel cylinders! I wonder how well those things worked?