• 47-54 Chevy Truck Catalog 
• 55-59 Chevy Truck Catalog 
• 48-56 Ford Truck Catalog 

By Brian McCormick

Courtesy of Truckin' Magazine

   Classic Performance Products 

  Adds Power Steering to your

'47-'59 Chevy & GMC

or

'48-'56 Ford F-100Trucks

When it comes to upgrading a classic Chevy or Ford truck, the options semm endless these days as aftermarket and restoration manufacturers continue to provide trick enhancement products. Classic Performance Products have become recognized leaders in the classic truck segments of customizing and restoration, with innovations catering to a variety of applications, all determined by the consumer's desires. 

Largely enough, the installation of power steering has become a major segment of classic truck upgrading. Classic Performance Products offer a wide varity of options, depending on the application. One of the hottest new offerings is a power steering kit that adapts to the original straight axle design. The power steering kit provides the flexability of retaining your stock steering column and gear box, as well as the original suspension and brake assemblies. 

In this kit, you will find new drag link and tie rod ends, control valve assembly and required hoses and compression fittings with the owner needing only to acquire a power steering pump that works with whatever engine your truck may have.  In a nutshell, this new power steering kit offers a lot to the restoration enthusiast or mild cutomizer who chooses to retain the factory chassis and suspension design, but would like the convenience of easier steering. It's simple to install and requires no major modifcations to your stock equipment.

Although very basic compared to today's suspension chassis designs, the stock 1947-'59 Chevy front suspension and steering assembly remains a must for resto-fans. That's where this bolt-on power steering kit comes in. To better show you the installation procedures, we are using a bare chassis with the engine removed. 

After properly jacking up the truck and supporting it with sturdy stands, the first step is to remove the stock tie rods.

Next, remove the stock drag link that attaches to the steering and pitman arms.

You then must remove the brake drums which allow access to the steering arm bolts. Now remove the bolts and the steering arms.

The stock ball ends must be removed to continue the installation.

Using the belt sander, remove the pressed edge to the point where you can slightly notice the outer circumference of the ball joint.

Use a center punch and hammer to knock out the ball end. You may hace to drill it out if it doesn't want to cooperate. When complete, re-install the steering arms back onto the backing plates of the truck.

Now you can slide the complete power steering setup under the truck, behind the axle.

Attach the power cylinder bracket to the axle using the supplied U-bolts and tighten.

After the bracket has been tightened, install a cotter pin into the power cylinder attachment bolt.

Install each new OEM upgrade one-inch tie rod ends onto the top of the steering arms that you removed the ball ends from. Cotter pins are to be installed here too.

The new drag link extending from the control valve is then installed onto the steering arm in the same manner as the stock drag link. Once again, be sure to install the cotter pins.

The new control valve simply installs right onto the stock pitman arm in the same fashion as the tie rod ends and drag link.

When the control valve has been installed, this is what the assembly should look like.

The choice of power steering pump will be determined by what engine your truck has.  In this case, we are  using a pump for a small block Chevy which is common with customizers. A quick trip to the parts yard will surely yield the pump you need. It is important that you get the hoses with the pump to continue the installation.

Since this truck doesn't have an engine, we are going to dummy where the pump will probably be mounted so that the hoses will be of proper length.

Remove the pressure hose and fitting from the pump. Using a hacksaw, cut the teel line just before the rubber hose.

The kit includes the compression fittings you will need to properly assemble the new power steering lines that extend from the control valve assembly.

Cut the pressure hose to the required length and screw on the threaded nut (left hand threads).

The re-usable fitting and nipple are then installed into the nut.

Now slide the provided nut and ferrule onto the end that you cut.

Connect the re-usable fitting and the hard line with the ferrule and nut together and tighten.

The pressure line can now be installed onto the pump and tightened.

The same goes for the return hose which is secured using hose clamps.

To adjust and check toe-in, loosen the cylinder clamp on the tie rod, as well as the end adjusters, and measure both the front side and rear side, drum to drum as shown. Set the toe-in at 3/32-inch and a minimum of 1-1/2-inches of caster for good steering return.

When you have gotten the alignment right, tighten the tie rod end adjusters. With the cylinder clamp still loose, keep the wheels pointing straight and extend the cylinder ram fully. Mark this point an the tie rod at the inside point of the clamp.

Now, fully retract the ram and mark the position on the tie rod from the same inside point of the clamp.

Measure between the two marks, which is seven inches as shown. Find the center point of the distance, which in this case, measures 3-1/2-inches and mark.

Now, set the inside of the clamp edge for which you used to measure the distances at the center point you just marked and re-tighten. This sets the power cylinder for equal operation while turning both directions.

Using a grease gun, lube all zerk fittings on the assembly (as well as your stock fittings while you're at it) to obtain the most from this system.

Also, be sure to add power steering fluid before you take off on a test cruise. If the left front wheel happens to rub the control valve assembly at all, simply readjust the steering stops on the spindles.