Got the rack mounted to the ideler arm & steering box frame mounts & tie rods are on the spindles. Now does anyone know what power steering hoses I can use for a Ford PS pump & the Caviliar rack? How much of my original colume do I cut off? I also would like to keep my automatic colume shift is that a problem? Wrote to Fatman & Butchscoolstuff.com no answers from them yet.......
Don't know answer to your hose question ,but how do you know your 54 will have the correct steering geometry.
the cavalier rack is metric,,,,you will have to adapt it. i went to napa and got cavalier hoses and got adapters to the standard pump.
Hey 19Forty, bought the mounts from a guy who bought the set up for a 54 Ford a long time ago & he can't remember where he got it. My old tie rods mount in the same position as they did before on the spindles & now about 8" apart on the rack. Everything is in the same position as it was before except for the colume hookup dilema & hose problem.
This is how my 62 is hooked up. One shows the bottom of the column and the other shows the support. I cut the flange off the steering shaft and flattened both sides to mate to a double D U joint. I shortened the column tube and added a bearing. I left all the brackets on for column shift. The shifter tube is external and mounts on top of the column. My shifter tube is not on in the pics.
Doing the same thing on my 56 wagon. You will notice the difference in your steering as it will not turn as sharp, ie: larger radius.
There are two different racks for the J bodies(Cavalier). One has fewer turns lock to lock than the other. I made sure I bought the one with the most turns. My turning radius is the same as it was before.
I doubt the number of steering wheel turns would make a difference between racks for the same car. Turn radius would be setup for maximum turn in both boxes and limited by the suspension design/wheelwell clearance...the number of turns simply being a way to make turning a non-power box easier during parking. In a more performance based version of the same car a faster box with fewer turns would be used...as a "sporty" driver would accept the slightly harder steering as a tradeoff to faster steering response while driving. Basicly...IF one works from a certain year Cavalier or whatever, they should all work from the same year Cavalier...fast OR slow ratio.
We have a place called royal brass that will make any hoses you want . Just take the hoses to a place like that and tell them what ends you want on it.
Thanks for the pictures Domino, was worth 1000 words. That double U-joint on the rack looks like the way to go.
The part number for the U joint is D16N-7DDX6DD. It is made by Borgeson. I checked both racks and the one with more turns moved farther both ways. It was the model that came with skinnier tires. The one for the sport handling had fewer turns due to the wider tires.
This is good reading. Especially the http://www.wurthitdesigns.com/ article on 54-56 Fords. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58985
I am using the Eaton pump from my car. I bought a fitting to convert the pump over to AN and had a local parts store make me a hose. My pressure hose is 4 braid hydraulic hose rated at 4000 PSI. I am a fan of overkill.
The Wurth site shows a single joint at both ends. That would eliminate the need for a double U joint and a support. The angles must not be as steep on the earlier frames. If that is the case, the number I posted will not work since it is a double.
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