Mustang II , chevy p/s problem

A friend of mine has a 50 chevy with a mustang rack with a chevy power steering pump, and has the common prob of the steering being "too fast" installed the inline pressure valve that is suppose to fix this, but no change. Any ideas ???

 

I used the adjuster tool and kit that changes the stock valve in the back of the pump. Cheap and easy. It lets you change the washers to vary the pressure rate. Get them from Yogi's or Parr Auto I think.

Then they are reusable on the next car too.


alchemy

 

When you say, "too fast" what exactly do you mean?

Do you mean to say it it too easy to steer? Because dropping line presure will make it harder to steer but will do nothing to kill steering response.

Does the car seem twitchy and hard to keep going in a straight line? This is commonly what people perceive as quick steering. If so this is an alignment problem. It could be that your caster is incorrect or isn't sufficient for the weight of the vehicle. Also things to consider are proper toe in and camber.

These are the alignment settings I like to use on most 40s and early 50s Fords and Chevys:

Caster 2.5 - 3 Degrees positive
Camber 0- .75 Degrees positive
toe in .125-.2" positive

Depending on what type of tire you are running can change those a bit too, like bias plys. Then I drop the toe in to near 0.

Excessive toe in or toe out can wreak all sorts of havoc on steering feel and response. Toe in makes a car feel more nervous and twitch and in some cases can cause a steering shudder. We just went through that on my dads coupe. It felt like the wheels were coming off. Toe Out makes the front end lathargic and slow to react, also described as a heavy feeling, slow steering.

 

El Polacko brings up a good point. Check your alignment before solving a problem in the pump. Remember that to fix the problem you need to check all the affected pieces and not jump to conclusions. Wrong conclusions will have you fixing the symptoms and not the root cause of the problem. Plus spending unnecessary money and time. Now ***uming that your alignment is OK, you probably do have too high of pressure. That in-line pressure regulator, does it actually reduce the pressure? Or is it just a restrictor. The restrictor type do not eliminate that initial overboost that makes it seem twitchy, as the pressure equalizes at high pressure on both sides of the regulator until the pump uses pressure, then it causes the pressure to reduce. Not really a solution to the problem. The in-pump pressure regulator is what you need to change, as suggested.

 

If it turns out to be a pump issue, save your bucks. Pull out the pressure spring "carefully snip a coil - coil and a half off. This is all we do up north and works like billy be damned. Don't snip off more than you have too though, better to "sneak up" on it rather than cut to short and have to find another spring.