1973 Steering Gear

[Tom K.]

Re: 1973 Steering Gear

Hi Everyone,

Well the car is back together and has been out tonight for a short test drive - what a difference these parts made! It's truly like a different car. I will make a few posts tonight with pix for the individual items. The rebuilt steering box was without a doubt the most significant. Gary Ramadei rebuilt my original and did an excellent job. The thing is silky smooth and restored beautifully. The only problem is, now much of my other steering gear looks pretty shabby next to the steering box. The PSCV I put on was the chain store rebuilt unit. Completely functional, but not a restoration quality item. The hoses are all new, and fit pretty well - I did make some adjustments to get them to clear everything during their travel and I will go into detail in another post. I repainted and rebuilt the steering cylinder as well.

Here are the steering box pix before installation...

[Tom K.]

Re: 1973 Steering Gear

The Power Steering Control Valve went in with no big issues however, I did learn that you must take the pinch bolt completely out of the casting in order to screw the valve onto the center link. Fortunately I did not mess up any threads and it went right on. After the valve gas been screwed onto the link, the pinch bolt passes through a notch to be sure the stud is oriented correctly to the pitman arm. As Patrick mentioned above, the valve did not need to be adjusted. With the wheels off the ground there was no drift to left or right at all. I did end up using the hose guide bracket, but I doubt it does much of anything, since the hoses do not touch it when moving through the full left to right travel. Maybe other cars will have a different stackup of tolerances and the hose guide bracket will help keep the hoses from rubbing. I probably should have painted the valve before I put it on, but Im hoping that over the summer the original will be rebuilt and re-installed.
I bought my replacement hoses from Paragon and during the installation I found they fit well without any leaks so far. The car was driven no more than about 5-6 miles tonight, so there could still be a problem ahead. I installed the hoses to and from the power steering pump first - the angles in the AIM are correct you want to use them if at all possible. I didnt actually measure them with a protractor, but just eyeballed them, then made one adjustment and everything was good.
I found it best to install the hoses to the steering cylinder with the PSCV all the way to the left (wheels turned full right) so that the hoses were closest to the steering cylinder frame support bracket. Again, eyeball the angles of the tubes shown in the AIM they will get you close. If I had it to do over again, I would install the hose that connects to the upper fitting on the steering cylinder first. This is because after I got the 180 degree bend near the valve in place, I needed to 'roll' the end at the cylinder fitting a bit to get the hoses to clear the steering cylinder frame support bracket. It was a pain to grip the tubing and 'roll' it to the correct orientation with the other hose already in place.

Pix of PSCV and power steering hoses:

[Edward D.]

Re: 1973 Steering Gear

Congrats Tom, nice work there. If it doesn't leak, nothing rubs on movement, and is balanced, its right. As far as the rest of the system is concerned, a little cleaning, wire brush work, and paint will make it look great again. Glad to hear everything is tight, sometimes a loose steering problem can also be worn tie rod ends and/or idler arm. Enjoy your ride!