Added two pics in gallery. What was it? Pic#1-2

 

Pwr steering. There's a FTE member looking for one if you don't want to go down that route.

 

Bendix P/S Control Valve-used with Power Assist P/S.

 

What did the rest of it look like ? Was is a good system ? It looks like it had 4 hoses plugged into it. But I'm not seeing the theory behind it.

 

It was called "Ram Assist", it had a hydraulic piston (kinda looked like a shock) that pushed or pulled the steering assembly when you turned the wheel.

There are others here that know lots more about it than me.

 

It all has to do with the type of Power Steering.

The control valve (and the Ram) is for power assist power steering.

The system uses the vehicles manual steering box, and was used on passenger cars from 1953 thru 1977 on some models, on some trucks thru 1976.

Example: A similar control valve to this one was used on 1974/76 F250 4WD's.

Take a look at any 1965/70 Mustang, a similar type of power assist P/S was used in all these cars.

And: all Ford Fairlanes/Galaxies 1953/64; 1955/60 T-Birds; 1963/70 Falcons; 1962/71 Fairlane/Torino's; 1970/77 Mavericks.

 

There's a 58 f250 on ebay with the factory pwr steering. item # 220222151689

I saw that truck at the columbus ford show last weekend. It had a completely differnent pump setup than the passenger car type(number dummy?) Theres the resivoir sitting high on the motor, than the had the ram attached to the drag link.

I have driven a 1968 fairlane with this style ram assist and it has very little driver feed-back, it does get the job done.

 

900-3A674 .. Power Steering Pump, produced by Eaton.

Used on vehicles with: 221/223/239/256/260/272/289/292/312/317 engines.

The reservoir is a separate part and fits above the pump. **

There was also: 1100-3A674, this pump was used on cars with: 332/352/361-1958 Edsel/364/368/383/430 engines.

These two (actually there are 4) pumps were used on all vehicles from 1953 thru 1964 and 1965 Mustangs assembled before 8/23/64.

The other two Eaton pumps were: 900-3A674-A & 1100-3A674-A.

A suffix = use with Air Conditioning.

These four pumps look identical, so how does someone tell one from another?

There's a large hex headed bolt on the front of the pump. Ford had the foresight to stamp the ID number there: 900 / 900-A / 1100 / 1100-A.

** NOTE: On cars with factory A/C, the reservoir is remotely mounted on the left fender apron.

FURTHER NOTE: FoMoCo was not the only automaker to use these Eaton pumps.

Studebaker / Nash / Hudson / Kaiser / ****** / Packard / Avanti II, prolly others used these pumps. Studebakers pre-dominate, and used the two 900 versions thru March 1966.

C2SZ-3B584-A .. P/S Pump Seal Kit ~ fits 'em all.

Memo to Bill Walford: If you can't find this Ford seal kit for your Avanti, you can whiz on over to Duncan Falls and ask Jon for 534665, the Studebaker p/n for this kit.

 

Hi,N.D..I'm still searching for an original control valve assembly for a 57-60.Can you tell me if the repair/seal kit is still available for it?I have the pump already,will order the kit you mentioned.Beside the pump and valve assembly,and hoses,what else is needed?Are there differences in the steering components,such as drag link or pitman arm?I really want to keep it all stock and use the original steering box.Was power steering a factory only option,or was it also a dealer install?Thanks,Steve.

 

ACH du LIEBER....whew....so many questions, the Dummy has so little time...

P/M me your phone number...lookin' the parts up is EZ, typin' them is something else again.

 

Ram assist as said is numb around neutral as it must be to not be "assisting" every time you jiggle the wheel, so it's a bit like driving a truck with a well worn steering box. If the steering box is indeed worn as well, then it's "holy freeplay batman". Unlike most power steering we experience today where it gives more assist while going slow like in a parking lot, the ram assist would give more assist the further from neutral you turned or the faster you were going. That can be very disconcerting to some who don't expect the steering to be more sensitive at highway speeds than turning in their driveway. IMHO it's a stopgap system, not true power steering. it was advertised as a way for the "little woman" to be able to drive the family truck.

 

All true.

But, when this type of P/S was introduced in Ford passenger cars in 1953, no one thought anything about the steering being "disconcerting" till integral P/S arrived in 1965.

btw: Not everyone started out driving cars with integral P/S.

Some of us drove with ram assist P/S for years, and frankly owning over 100 cars with ram assist didn't bother me a bit, and I ain't some little old lady!

Disconcerting: I test drove a Volvo P344 in the early 1960's once, and once only!

Its manual steering gearbox was 2.2 turns lock to lock, and after driving American cars with 4.5 thru 6 turns lock to lock, that Volvo steering was downright scary!

I damn near rolled the pile on the test drive = never again!

 

So the "little lady" can drive it... was a quote from a FoMoCo ad of the day I once saw for the power assist option. Wasn't considered demeaning, sexist or non PC back then, how the times have changed.
Sports cars like the Solstice, Miata and Corvette have very quick ratio steering designed to give a 1:1 feeling of connection between the steering wheel and directional response, once you become familiar with it (it gives a sensation that you just think of where you want the car to go and it goes there) it becomes very natural, and makes slower steering feel like you are driving a bus.