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This page will describe the installation of late model (in the box) power steering on my father's '66 Chevy truck. We used a REZ Engineering adapter kit from Golden State Pickup Parts that allows the use of a '69 to '87 1/2 ton 2wd Chevy truck steering box.
Kit Contents
Other Required Parts
The same REZ Engineering conversion kit can also be purchased from Classic Performance Products. They have an online version of the installation instructions.
Performing the Swap
The swap is very straight forward as described in the instructions. However,
instead of cutting and welding the steering shaft with it still on the truck,
we found it easier to remove it. Once the old steering box is removed (by
taking the coupler off of the box), the steering shaft can be slid out of the
steering column by simply removing the steering wheel. With the shaft out of
the truck, we cut it off above the coupler. Then, we temporarily put the shaft
back in and bolted the new power steering box up to the frame. This allowed us
to see that about 3/4" had to be cut from the shaft. We pulled the steering
shaft back out in order to weld it back together. It was also easier to clean
and paint the shaft with it off of the truck.
The pitman arm that came with the power steering box looked different than the one on the old manual box, but it worked okay. We used a new pressure hose meant for a '74 Chevy truck (that's what the donor steering box came from). The steering box end fit perfectly over the frame with no modifications to the inner fender well required. The pump end of the hose had to be bent slightly due to the different pump location (we used brackets that work with the stock short water pump and driver side alternator). The return hose was home-made using a piece of pre-flared steel tubing and a section of rubber hose.
The hoses were not installed when the photo at the top of this page was taken (that's a rag on top of the box keeping dirt out of the ports). I'll add a photo of the hoses sometime soon.