Hey guys! Ive been sitting at work pondering and searching and tryin to figure out what power steering pump to use? I am running a chevy 305 and I have a Mustang II power rack and pinion. My understanding is the GM pumps produce 3 gpm and the rack only needs 2 gpm, so if you run it straight the steering is twitchy and it blows the seals in the rack. I read where a few people use an adjustable valve, but the reviews were 50/50....some like and some hate it? Another solution is to buy a GM pump that is valved for the MII rack, but they were roughly $200, but if anybodys used them and its worked like a charm I guess thats money well spent? Anybody had any exprience with them? A cheaper option I found was a valve that screws into the back of the pump to restrict the pressure from 3 gpm to 2 gpm....andybody know anything about this? This is only $20. I already have a brand new pump, so to me this seems like the best deal....if it works? I dont want to cut any corners with steering as it is a very important operation of any vehicle, so if anybody has any first hand experience or other options, Im all ears! Thanks guys!
sorry, heres a link to the valve that screws in from speedway http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Mustang-II-Power-Steering-Flow-Valve-for-GM-Pump-2-GPM,5852.html
That valve looks like it should work. I personally put a T-bird rack on the MkII suspension in my '53. It apparently is okay with the higher pressure. But if you already have your rack then a $20 valve certainly seems like something worth trying. Personally I've always wondered why no one makes a bracket to just mount a Ford power steering pump to a Chevy motor? But then again I did what everyone else seems to do and just used the pump I already had with the brackets I already had on the motor I already had.
I have just the setup your talking about , A GM pump and power MII rack. I choose to re-shim the pump ( very easy ) with a kit from borguson, also They make a line/hose kit, my pump was inverted flares and my rack was o-ring, so it required a speacial hoses. Hinde sight, I should have choose a non power rack and not needed any of this. but it drives vest easy 1 finger and parking is a breeze. Also note they make 2 power racks for the mustang/t-bird/pinto one is a quick ratio the other standard, get the standard ratio unless your building a road race car. Godspeed MrC.
I use the Flamming River Variable Pressure Low Flow Pump (http://www.flamingriver.com/index.php/products/c0012/s0003/FRPMPSB-V) and a three turn lock to lock T-bird rack. I have done this combo on four cars I have built and found it to work out the best. I have built nine other cars using the shims and they were ok but not near as good as with the Flamming River pump.
very easy to drop the pressure in the g.m. pump... the less washers in the valve the more pressure...1 washer for really heavey cars\trucks. max of 5 washers can be used. my rig with fat tires on the front and having the car weighed at a highway scale(costs nothing!) it weighed 1800 pounds.(front axel) with a little trial and messing about i found that 3 washers was perfect. no more twitchy., tamed the steering down a bunch.
Another idea, Instead of paying 90-100 bucks for the custom hoses, buy stock hoses (10-15 bucks) cut them in the middle and have a hose place join them (it cost me 6 bucks) Rich
http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/ccrp_1212_power_steering_fix_junkyard_builder/ Well worth looking at. ^^^^ Not everything but damn near all you're going to need to know about Saginaw power steering pumps
On my first GM to M2 power rack 20 years ago when aftermarket parts were not available I cut one or two coils out of the spring on the pressure side of the GM pump. Works great.
To answer atomkustoms question,the shims are located on the piston placed behind the fitting holding the pressure hose onto the back of the pump. Removing washers is easier than trimming the spring, as cutting to much off the spring, and "yer fu@#ked. Bowtie40
To lower pressure shims are added here- Tricky part is holding the valve in the vise to unscrew the end. I made a holder out of the inner bearing race of an old serpentine belt idler pulley bearing I had laying around. Cut the bearing apart, then split the inner race, clean up inside of cut. Now you can clamp the valve in the vise with split race so you're not damageing the valve surface.
Just use a mid/late 80's T-Bird rack. They are about $90. They work fine with the pressure and flow of a Saginaw/GM pump. Speedway has the hoses, pre-made, for the SAE and the metric pumps.
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