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anyone switch to power steering from manual?

davek

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I thinking of buying a kit for the 70 Bee bb. was hoping to get feed back from anyone who has bought a kit and were they bought it from. I dont want to piece it just looking for the whole kit. Cant seem to find one only for sb. so do I need to piece it? thanks Dave
 
there is a guy on ebay norman koller. he can put a complete kit together for you all oe mopar
 
I went from manual to power steering in my 70 Roadrunner due to INCREDIBLY tight parallel parking in Chicago. I did piece my kit together though. Not the worst modification I've done (difficulty or results).
a. P/S box
b. P/S brackets, pulleys, belt
c. P/S steering shaft only
d. coupler
e. pitman arm
 
its a pain in the butt turning it at dead stop. I would enjoy the car more with ps. it is a 4 spd so that does come into play. I also park in the back yard and have to turn around to pull it out. Well I guess I will have to piece it. thanks to all.
 
I went from manual to power steering in my 70 Roadrunner due to INCREDIBLY tight parallel parking in Chicago. I did piece my kit together though. Not the worst modification I've done (difficulty or results).
a. P/S box
b. P/S brackets, pulleys, belt
c. P/S steering shaft only
d. coupler
e. pitman arm
I dont think you have to change steering column,I believe cut shaft add coupler and drill for pin.
 
I dont think you have to change steering column,I believe cut shaft add coupler and drill for pin.
I'm pretty sure you're correct. Most people swap the whole column. I ONLY swapped the main steering shaft from a donor column. It did look like you could "telescope" it in enough to get it down to power steering column length and re-drill/install new plastic shear pins....at the worst, you'd have to shorten the solid/inner half of the main steering shaft.
 
Why switch?
I would ask the same question. My first Road Runner in '69 was manual, and while a bit stiff (as I recall) I had a feel of the road. My current '69 has P/S. It is like steering on greased ice. While effortless, it has no feel of the road at all. I feel like if I had to make an evasive maneuver at high speed, I may not be able to recover. Personally, I'd prefer it had manual steering.
 
I dis this for my 73 duster when I built it for my brother (before it was mine) he was a shrimpy kid couldn't turn the wheel without the power steering . I just bought everything like the car was a power steering car then stole the braketsb off a junk motor shorten the steering column there's two pin holes for the colapsablco column I moved from the out to the inner didn't cost me much to do conversion
 
I dont think you have to change steering column,I believe cut shaft add coupler and drill for pin.
I'm not sure about the later manual steering shafts, but that's exactly what I did on my 64 Belvedere. Used the Bergman coupler with Borgeson box and ps hoses. Set it where I like it and cut/drilled pin to the middle of the coupler so still could move column in/out a bit yet if needed. Definitely measure twice, cut once or at least err on the long side.

New pump with low pressure spring and Bouchillon brackets as well.
 
was told steering shaft is same,manual longer ps shorter but could use one from anther car. anyone? is the gear box the same on a a-body? or is it by years
 
I would ask the same question. My first Road Runner in '69 was manual, and while a bit stiff (as I recall) I had a feel of the road. My current '69 has P/S. It is like steering on greased ice. While effortless, it has no feel of the road at all. I feel like if I had to make an evasive maneuver at high speed, I may not be able to recover. Personally, I'd prefer it had manual steering.
Agree here. Best thing is to shim the valve in the pump...you can add firmness incrementally but still have power assist.
 
I want to change to power steering in my A100 mainly for ease of driving. These little suckers get heavy when parking tight.
Different setup to a car, and will probably be totally custom fabricated.
 
Just throwing this out there if price is a concern. PST makes a new quick ratio manual box, not rebuilt to your door for FBBO members for $260 (iirc).
3 1/2 turns lock to lock...
 
I would ask the same question. My first Road Runner in '69 was manual, and while a bit stiff (as I recall) I had a feel of the road. My current '69 has P/S. It is like steering on greased ice. While effortless, it has no feel of the road at all. I feel like if I had to make an evasive maneuver at high speed, I may not be able to recover. Personally, I'd prefer it had manual steering.

I agree that the standard Mopar power steering on these cars is not good - I like your reference about steering on greased ice! I switched my 70 Road Runner from manual to Power Steering, BUT, I did it by using a Firm Feel stage 2 box, a sector support kit, all new suspension components, boxing lower control arms, improved upper control arms, etc. The car handles really nicely and I am very happy with it. When these cars have a really nicely set up suspension they work great. Also, perhaps a lot of the blame can be set to the stock upper control arms, that have very little caster in them. They are really designed for manual steering, so adding power steering makes the car skittish. Replace those with aftermarket ones and that issue goes away.

IMHO a well designed overall power steering setup on these cars is great.
 
I agree that the standard Mopar power steering on these cars is not good - I like your reference about steering on greased ice! I switched my 70 Road Runner from manual to Power Steering, BUT, I did it by using a Firm Feel stage 2 box, a sector support kit, all new suspension components, boxing lower control arms, improved upper control arms, etc. The car handles really nicely and I am very happy with it. When these cars have a really nicely set up suspension they work great. Also, perhaps a lot of the blame can be set to the stock upper control arms, that have very little caster in them. They are really designed for manual steering, so adding power steering makes the car skittish. Replace those with aftermarket ones and that issue goes away.

IMHO a well designed overall power steering setup on these cars is great.
Yeah I hear Ya, My 68 has manual steering and brakes ( converted to 11ln disc ). When I had it allinged after assembly the guy wanted to put it to factory caster specs. No No No put in as much positive as you can. Got almost 2 degrees Pos. I could not imagine running negative with radials going down the interstate. Its a bear in parking lots ect but it is what it is. Got a PS setup on the shelf, box,pump and a column just waiting for summer to end and convert. Thinking of sending the box to Firm Feel for a freshen up to stage 2 specs.
 
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