I have the factory power steering on my '57 Pontiac. Factory pump and factory gear. For the most part it works too well, on to the questions. #1 The seal that seals the input shaft on the gear itself is leaking. Who sells this seal? Or am I better off try a power steering stop leak product, aka, SSSSSSSake Oil? #2 This thing is full assist all the time. Parallel parking, awesome. 75 down the freeway, kinda scary. Scary because it has no feel and is really quick. Hands on the wheel, 10 & 2, at all times. Steering and suspension is all tight. Alignment was set with a digital hub gauge. Tracks straight when you take your hands off the wheel. Tires are older, radial takeoffs. Is there anything I can do to reduce the assist? Wouldn't mind sacrificing some low speed effort for some high speed stability.... #3 I've heard of guys switching to a 605 box. Is this a true bolt-in power steering box? Will it cure either of my 2 issues listed above? Should I just find a manual steering box and save my extra pulley groove for a/c at some later time? Thanks in advance! She's tucked away right now, just working on collecting some parts over the winter.
If you could slow down the pump some that would reduce the pressure its sending to the box. That would require a larger diameter pulley on the pump.
The pulley on there is quite large already, I had thought of that. I thought someone had mentioned some sort of restrictor to slow things down? I can't be the first guy to have this issue....
There once was a unit sold by the rod shops to help with this problem when using a GM pump on a Ford rack. I never used one. I just remember them being available.
I switched out a 57 Starchief to what was probably a 605 Box about 30 years ago and it was pretty much a bolt in. I think I used the 57 Pitman arm but am not positive. The steering column has to be slid down about an inch an a half to two inches to hook it back up to the box. That didn't seem to make any issues with leg room under the steering wheel at the time though.
on the seal your gonna need to femove and measure it then take it to the local bearing shop. another idea would be to contact a shop that rebuilds vintage steering boxes and they may sell the seals.
What you've got is called a Saginaw inline power steering box. I don't know a lot about the internals of those. It was the first of the smaller/simpler/cheaper power steering boxes. The 605 is not a very good box, I'd avoid it if I could. If you go for a conversion, something that uses a new 600-series (also called 670-series) Delphi/Saginaw box would be much better if possible, they're the latest and greatest (and have no relationship to the older 605.) The old Saginaw 700/800-series is also a good box, and very tuneable. Cutting down pump speed also cuts flow rate, which may cause your assist to disappear in quick maneuvers. You might want to give Tom Lee at Lee Manufacturing (http://lee-powersteering.com) a call rather than guessing at a fix, by now I'm sure they've seen just about every possible combination. One other comment: as a general rule the more caster you can run, the better the straight-ahead stability.
The 605 conversion isn't quite a bolt in, but close. I've seen the old Rodder's Digest article on the swap and the hardest part was only one original mount hole works. What they did was drill two new ones oversize, and weld a piece of tubing inside them so that the frame couldn't collapse when the bolts were cranked down. It bolts to the stock pitman arm and then you ran your column to it. I don't know how bad they can be, GM used them in millions of cars in the 1980s and I never heard of one blowing up or breaking in a way you couldn't steer the car. But the prime reason for using one was the near bolt-up fit of it. If you can find another one that fits the same way and is better, you could probably use it instead. As for the seal, maybe someone on the Pontiac-1950s yahoo group would know where to come by one, or maybe you could measure it and see if you can find something that will work.
Update... So I got it out for the Summer last weekend, steering still seemed a little odd/off. So I put it on the alignment rack at work, finally. Camber and caster were almost perfect, as in good enough to not adjust. Toe was -.23 on either side. Dialed both sides to 0 and HOLY SHIT it's like driving a different car!! Thank goodness I didn't blow a whole bunch of cash doing a bunch of other stuff! Lesson learned: Do the free stuff or the cheapest first. Also Intercomp makes a very fine digital hub, camber caster gauge. Still looking for some seal help. Currently trying some stop-leak... seems to have helped a bit..
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