I was wondering if anyone has used the power assist power steering units available from Sacramento Vintage or Mid Fifties. I am wanting to add power steering to my 56 while trying to keep everything as stock as possible. They are pretty pricey though and was also wondering if there is a similar factory substitute that certain year vehicles used that would work. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Dave

 

I installed it on my '56 twenty years ago. I bought a kit from somewhere, only to find out I had to go to Ford to get the ram and control valve. It wound up costing about $600 in '82. I figured out the parts were from late 60's early 70's intermediate Ford products, as I had a '69 Cougar at the time and recognized the parts after I had purchased them. What it basically consists of is the pitman arm has the ball removed and a taper machined in it's place for one end of the control valve. The rear portion of the drag link is cut off and threaded 3/4-20 and screwed into the other end of the control valve. The ram is mounted to a bracket that bolts to the axle using a longer u-bolt, the other end is attached to the tie rod with another bracket, and the pump, control valve, and ram are plumbed together. The result is an easy steering, but very touchy setup. The problem is the natural bump steer these trucks have actuates the control valve and tries to steer the truck ( the control valve has a little bit of play in it that actuates the valves inside ). You have to hold the steering wheel VERY still when driving or you weave back and forth quite a bit ( supposedly adding a couple more degrees of caster using shims helps this ). It winds up seeming that driving is mostly left or right and not much straight ahead. There's also not much road feel.

 

 

Thanks alot 54 5Star, Your comments are greatly appreciated and caused me to take a different direction on the power steering issue. I do not want to have to chase the steering to keep it straight, thanks again!!
Dave