The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Power Steering question

Hi, guys:

Newbie here. Recently acquired a 53 Chevy 6100 Ashton Wrecker. Am curious if there are power steering conversions available for this rig? Or if not, is there any other (newer) year truck or vehicle that may be a bolt on replacement? Don't laugh but I am not strong enough to drive this puppy in current standing. Am just a girl.

Thanks
K. Wells
57Heaven

PS... Why the big rig? She was just too cute to pass up.

Girls are welcome here too. We had a bit of a fight one day when I brought home another truck and the two girls in my life both said it was cute and wanted it for their own.

The wife won, the daughter will have to find her own truck...

Scott Ward converted a big truck to power steering he should jump in here soon with some information about what he did. I don't think you'll find a kit, but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

There are no kits to convert that I am aware of, but a system could be made up using newer components, if you can't do the work yourself it will be expensive. All you really want to do is lessen the steering effort, believe it or not I have heard of people adapting ram assist steering from a fairly new corvette, I'm not sure what year I'm a truck guy not a sports car guy good luck.

Got any pictures !

What I did (right or wrong) is, I put a 78 3/4 ton 4x4 steering sector in from of the axle on the side of the frame and made an adjustable shaft to hook up to the steering linkage. I then swapped out the steering column for a later model GM (I think it came from a 76 Monte Carlo) and fabbed up a shaft to go between the column and the sector. The main reason that I did this conversion was to get a V-8 in there, the P/S steering ended up being a welcome bonus. With the powr brakes, steering and the V-8, this is a nice truck to drive, even my wife has driven it. She has no interest in driving the stock one, other than to maybe to use the dump bed on it,
Scott

Scott if you can get your wife to drive any of your trucks you're doing much better than I!

My wife won't even drive the half-ton with automatic, power steering and brakes...

Wait a minute, maybe that's not a problem. That means its always parked outside when I want it!

My wife won,t even ride in mine.

Steve,
The wife only drives it when pursuaded to, otherwise she doesn't really care. I like to keep her "into" my hobby so I can enjoy spending time with her doing what I like to do. Later on this winter/spring I'm gonna do a quicky build up of a ratrod 50 pick-up for her to drive. That way she can join in on some of the old truck "fellowship" at cruise -ins and local shows. I've been aquiring parts all summer and after I make my restoration project self propelled again and do up BradB's frame and suspension for his panel, I'm gonna get started on it. She's a good sport, she goes to all of the shows and swapmeets even when it's way out of town. She has a love for a 70 Chevelle SS bigblock car but it's a little out of our price range right now, so I'm hopin' the 50 satisfies he needs for a while,
Scott

P.S sorry about hijacking your thread but you DO have two of them (LOL)

steering sector??? is that another way to say steering gear box??? if so I had a similar idea for my 51 6400

Yes,
Since it doesn't really have gears but a recirculating ball configuration I thought "sector" would be more fitting. Sorry about the confusion,
Scott

Hello,

Sorry to start up to an old thread,

with using the 3/4 tonne steering box, how did it hold up on the larger 1.5/2 ton truck.

Was it very heavy or did it break under the heavier load and bigger tyres?

Cheers

Mathew

day late and a dollar short, but i did see something about stealing the p/s box out of a chevy p30. if i can re-find that thread ill happily come back to share the link.
Trying to do a p/s setup on my 2 ton 54 GMC 350. because of a v8 swap i have to move the box, spline the steering shaft on both ends where i cut a section out of the middle. Splined HD U joints and a HD steering shaft that will connect the two. the angle wouldn't be severe as i believe the box only has to move an inch, so it should be smooth steering without sacrificing strength. others may think differently but im gonna go for it worst case scenario is it doesn't work and im back at square 1. good luck!

The ram assist power steering was used on Chevy cars up through 1964, Mustangs through 71, Corvettes to about 1990, and many 4wd and construction equipment. It works very well but on lower vehicles the hoses were hard to keep keep up out of the way of snags. On a big truck it should work fine. To install you mount the control valve on the pitman arm end of the drag link, make mount brackets for the ram on the frame rail and the tie rod, mount p/s pump on engine and run the pressure and return hoses. Not a complex install at all and changed none of the original design or parts. Pics of the set up on a 1940 International with straight axle.

Control valve on drag link:
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/xk7RB1Hm/straight-axle-p-s-003.jpg[/img]

Ram mount in tie rod (other end of ram goes to bracket on frame):
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/JtB1fYwH/straight-axle-p-s-002.jpg[/img]

Ram end in tie rod:
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/HrjHt6tL/straight-axle-p-s-005.jpg[/img]

I have a Prius electric power steering unit that I have not used on anything yet and have no idea what type of load it can handle but if it can just give like X pounds of assist and not burn up then it will do away with pumps, hoses, valves, etc. This would change NOTHING of the front end parts.

It is good to stagger ends on braces so all the stress does not terminate at the same location.

Ed

It's not bolt-on, but pretty close- - - -try a power steering box from a Toyota Land Cruiser. There will be some adapting required where it mounts to the frame, and you'll need to fit a steering pump to the engine, but it's probably simpler than using a boost cylinder from the frame to the tie rod and a sensing valve grafted into the drag link. The 82 Corvette with 9500 original miles that I inspected a couple of weeks ago had the boost cylinder steering setup, but the sensing valve was built into the Pitman arm at the steering gear.
Jerry

Hey Old sub my experience since about 1966 has been ...best to buy 'em that you'll be able to sleep in for awhile LOL.