Has anyone had any experience adding a power steering pump to a Merc flat head? If so did you use a Ford of GM pump? I'm looking to feed a GM steering gear. Thanks
Nope ..that's why I'm asking. Putting the engine into a 47 Studebaker truck mounted on an S10 ch***is which already has a power steering box on it so looking to possibly hook up to it. Not sure how much harder the steering would be on this ch***is converting to a manual box. Actually now that I think about it I wonder how much harder the steering would be just keeping the power gear but not pressurizing the box...............hmmmm
You lost most of these guys at" s10 ch***is" .....you r motor has the double 3 eights belts right? If so mount the pump high on one side...
LOL .. I take it an S-10 is not considered very traditional... I think they are wide belts so that's more like 5 /8ths I think. I was looking at many belt and pulley combinations last night and considering high to the right side also. I'm converting to a 12 V alternator and not sure if I will dump the stock pulley driven fan for an electrical one but probably will. In that case I would be swapping out the fan drag for power steering pump drag. To accommodate the change to the alternator and a power steering pump I would have to fab a new bracket set up and convert some pulleys.
I.m at work so can't lppk it up but somewhere here on the hamb is a link to someone that makes an adapter. Mounts down low so you don;t even see it. Sweet looking solution. Try searching.
In '53, Ford offered P/S in their Victorias. Cars so equipped came with a three belt pulley. They are hard to find, but out there. If you want to stay stock looking, this may be a way to go.
Thanks ..I will check that out ..one issue is if it used the wide or skinny belts. If I have to convert to skinny belts I probably have to replace both water pumps which would be a few bucks.
Something to note, if you use an older style pump and the a newer style box or vise-versa, the ratio of pumping oil vs the amount of oil the gear box need may differ enough and give you too fast or two slow steering. I had this issue on my 57. Even if you use the same pump that goes to the gearbox, the speed of the idle on the engine may differ from what it was originally installed in. I got one of these but never installed it, but was recommended to adjust the volume of pressure. I had old power steering with a new box and it was way too fast and finicky. Maybe I will start that project gain one day.. http://www.southernrods.com/adjustable-power-steering-valve.html
i did it a few years ago, and from what i remember i used the fan "slot" with a longer belt and fixed the pump to the head. the fan tightened the belt. for a pulley i cut a lower pulley off a 316 chevy vibration damper, and had a machinist cut the center out. he then cut the outer part of the chevy p.s. pump pulley away and welded them together. still working perfect. he welded and smoothed it out so well that some day in the future somebody is going to try to order one using the gm part number still present on the pulley.
Here is a pic of a Merc engine I built a few years ago and added AC and an alternator in place of the original generator. I fabbed a bracket that held both and used one belt to drive the alternator, and the other to drive the AC compressor. Originally, these were wide belt 8RT truck pumps which I used to get the correct motor mount ear location for the Ford cross member and I swapped the pulleys for the narrow belt style from the Merc pumps. You could subs***ute a PS pump for the AC compressor location. There are other options...mounting offset over the cylinder head, as was done with the generator when multi carbs were used, although that worked best with pre '49 center outlet heads. Now, in your case, the location/height of the motor mounts may not be important and you could use stock narrow belt Merc pumps. One thing I learned on swapping the pulleys.....they need a support that fits up inside the pulley when pressing them off. The cast iron pulley, at it's perimeter, won't take the load of pressing off the shaft, which fortunately I learned with a wide belt pulley. Otherwise, it was pretty simple. Ray
i know this is an older post, but in case someone does a search here are the photos of the one i did. he brought the truck back and i was able to take some photos.
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/0908rc-ford-flathead-power-steering-system/ http://jamcosuspension.chttp://stre...ucts/sfID1/73/sfID2/80/sfID3/12/productID/556 Volvo PS box from memory was used with a bolt on adaptor? Here's a Shoebox conversion http://www.hotrod.com/articles/0902sr-1949-1951-ford-steering-motor-mounts/
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