I lucked across an IDI ambulance with V belt setup, I picked up the pump, pressure hose, bracket on the pump, all the other brackets off the front of the engine and for the air conditioning, and all the bolts. At a glance the only things unique to the Saginaw pump setup are the bracket on the pump itself and a spacer for one of the bolts into the block or head.

For one I'm thinking it wouldn't be a bad idea to rebuild the pump before installing. I don't see any kits that include the hard wear parts. Namely I'm thinking replacing the vanes would be prudent but can't find any source... Or is this so rarely necessary that nobody sells them? I can always disassemble and clean and just not worry about it if there's no excessive or abnormal wear upon inspection.

What hose do I need to use to install the van Saginaw pump in a truck? Truck or van hose? Or something else entirely? New hoses are cheap and listed as an o-ring type fitting on the pump same as the Ford C2 pump. If that's the case I'm guessing the only difference in this pump vs any other Saginaw it the fitting on the output for a Ford style o-ring connection?

Also, this was my first time seeing or wrenching on a van engine compartment in person. I don't want to do it again. You van guys are something else...

 

Pictures of what I have...

 

I'm trying to remember what I did when I put a saginaw in my '88. I looked at both lines and can't remember... I'm pretty sure the saginaw pump uses a different fitting, possibly just a flare fitting. As I seem to remember cutting the end off a line and flaring it. Also remember trying to get a really tight bend in the line since it comes out the rear of the saginaw instead of the side of the ford pump.

So I want to say use a truck line, but modify the end to work?

I wish I could find one that would work with the serpentine belt in my '93, I miss the saginaw, pretty sure it worked better.

 

I blasted and painted the brackets today. The pressure line on the pump is definitely a typical Ford style with O-ring. I will pick up a reseal kit for the pump so I can blast and paint the reservoir and clean up the internals.

For fluid I'll flush the box with dino juice then connect the return and fill with synthetic. I may install a cooler. I've notice with the C2 pump the fluid tends to cook with 35"x12.5" or larger tires and lots of tight maneuvering (trailers in tight spots). This truck has smaller metric tires and hasn't really had and fading from heating the fluid so far, so if I have a small cooler on hand I'll use that. I know I have a massive cooler but that would be ridiculous for power steering.

 

Pump is disassembled and cleaned. Shaft bushing and seal replaced and pump housing painted. Once that dries I can reassemble it. It's good I went at it, the shaft was a little hard to turn even with everything disassembled. It turns smoothly with minimal resistance with the new bushing installed.

I will wait to get a new pressure hose until I try the two hoses I have (truck and van). If neither fit nicely I may try a '78-'79 truck pressure hose, as I read someone used one of those for a Saginaw swap.

 

I got sick of this sitting in pieces on my bench so I put it back together. Tricky part is making sure the vanes go back in the correct orientation. One long side is more rounded and the other is closer to square. This is hard for my eyes to discern, but there is wear on one side and not the other so the side that faces out will be shiny and polished looking and the side that faces in will be a more dull and less reflective finish. There is also a wear pattern on the flat side of the blade for the side that is loaded against the rotor. This was plainly visible on most of the vanes but present on all. So even if you get them mixed up it's possible to get them installed in the same orientation.

There were thick and thin orings in the kit, to go between the pump bushing and the reservoir. I used the thin orings as they were closest to the thickness of what I removed. Hopefully that's right and it doesn't leak, they did sit proud of the pump housing in the machined recess for them.

Installing the reservoir was tricky. I ended up getting it as far as I could by hand, installing the bolt for the bracket, tightening slightly, hammering with a dead blow around the reservoir, tightening the fitting, etc. until I could get the pressure fitting installed and did the same but tightening two fitting slightly each time around. Started to pinch the big oring once, backed off a bit and got it sorted then back on straight.

I blasted the pulley then painted that and put a final coat on the assembled pump. Once paint has cured I'll install the pulley and be done with the pump. Brackets and blasted and painted. All that's left is to clean and paint the bolts then swap it on and figure out the pressure hose and belt. I did not check the pressure fitting size or modify spring length/tension for the check valve. I'll see how it performs as it came from the factory and modify if needed.

 

Also, pulley PN is E0TC-FA. I think it's a different shaft size than the Ford pump, not sure of offset is different too.

 

Dont suppose you know anything about this where it concerns the serpentine setup? Getting ready to replace my well worn and tired steering box, the pump is no better, and the lines are shot. Since im going through all the hassle, might as well upgrade the pump if its not that difficult.

 

I recall reading that on the serpentine setup if you can't find a Saginaw van bracket you can drill an extra hole in the C2 bracket and get 3 bolts through the bracket into the Saginaw pump. I believe that was for small block bracketry, but the bracket on the pump itself may be the same.

 

Were you happy with the saginaw? After writing this, i did more reading and stumbled across some posts here and on other boards where people were dissapointed with the saginaw pump. Im rethinking the whole saginaw = upgrade thing.

 

I haven't swapped it on yet. My 6.9 blew a head gasket recently, I'm going through a 7.3 and will put the Saginaw on when that goes in the truck. At least another two weeks waiting for the machine shop to do the heads. I can't imagine it will perform worse than the C2 pump though, Saginaw are supposedly greater volume and pressure.