Power Steering via bowtie

[willysrul]

I have a Saginaw 800 box and pump out of a old Monte Carlo left over from a previous project. Has anyone here put one of these big Chevy boxes in their 4x4 HighBoy? If this has been covered please point me in the right direction. Thanks,
Erick

[averagef250]

If you're running enough lift the saginaw boxes work well for crossover steering. Haven't tried nor seen anyone else mount a saginaw box on a ford for non-crossover steering.

I prefer the factory power assist stuff myself. It's not hard to work on and it turns the tires no matter what. It doesn't work with much lift though.

[Doug Comer]

Average250 just my curiosity but why do you prefer the power assist? Maybe you know something I don't. Thanks Doug

[willysrul]

I'm planning on playing in the rocks with this truck. The reason I wanted to go the Cheby route is that the shaft is shorter and less likely to break. eventually I will add hydro assist or go full hydrualic. Plus I have heard that the seals don't like the abuse in the Ford stuff and will end up puking sooner. Yes it will be for high steer crossover steering. I have a 79 D60 front that I can put steering arms on tho get them up and out of harms way. I think that there is about 4-5" of lift on this truck.

[averagef250]

The ford power assist is tough and it works very well if you maintain it. It's the same form of system used on farm tractors, semi's and other big stuff. The power assist will turn big tires in ruts and wedged in rocks where a power box won't. There is a downside to the power assist- It has parts that wear quickly if you don't keep them lubricated. Many don't take the minute or so to grease this stuff during an oil change and it starts to wear. Ford even went as far as to make the control valve completely user serviceable and very simple to compensate for wear that occurs over time. Factory shop manuals have a great section on this. The assist cylinder is a little different, if you didn't grease the attached ball joint for the past 30 years, the whole thing is junk unless you want to fab your own joint up to replace it. In 99.9% of these, the cylinder joint is fine, but the stem seal leaks. It usually leaks because the hard chrome is worn away wear the stem rides in the packing while driving straight. I believe these cylinders used an inferior grade of hard chrome cylinder stem from the factory. They shouldn't wear like that. However, it's not that hard of a fix. You need a die grinder, a hammer and welder. Cut through the weld at each end of the cylinder and tap it apart, watch in amazement as 2 pounds of accumulated fines from the dozen or so ford power steering pumps that have gone gunny bag pour out from the cylinder, and pull the stem and piston out. Go out and buy a couple feet of high quality 5/8" hard chrome cylinder stem, bring it to a machine shop with the old stem and have it duplicated. Put the whole thing back together with a new packing seal (readily available) and weld up both ends of the cylinder, be sure you get it clocked correctly though!

The old ford power steering pumps really do suck though. I'm baffled why they used such a pile for so long. I vote for replacing the ford pump with a saginaw unit before rebuilding your power assist setup.

[Doug Comer]

Thanks for the education. Doug