I am building a 1957 truck into a resto rod. I am looking for a powersteeringbox to hang in place of the manual box. The pitman arm moves
the draglink forward and back not side to side like most of the non straight axel boneyard donors that I have been looking at. Any one have any ideas as to what I might use? Rack and pinion is out I really don't want to use it.

The early Dodge trucks are for the majority, manual steering, although power steering was introduced in 1957, it was basically a hyd valved shock added to the front tie rod to assist the steering, rather poor attempt at PS,... your best bet is to go to the Sweptline.org website, although it caters to the 61-71 Dodge trucks, they all suffer from the same piss poor steering box/design/layout...the most popular upgrade is the Toyota truck power steering box mods, quite a few threads on different approaches to the swap, plus several companies offering PS swap kits like MidFiftys, although for Ford 50's pick ups, can work for early Dodge pick ups with a few mods


Mike

I saw a Pierce Arrow hot rod that had the original straight axle front suspension in it and the builder mounted a cut down rack and pinion on the frame and used one end of it to push/pull the drag link. It was a brilliantly simple solution for that application.

Maybe an electric power steering column?

Kevin

i thought all the old power wagons---mid 70's-80-90's used drag links---seems like on my last cummins conversion i used the 90 cummins draglink so the big ends would work on the dana 60 front....and they mostly are all power units....find a 4x4 unit to look at....

Thanks for the info, I will look into the Toyota swap

72-78 Dodge 4wd trucks use a steering box that: is the common GM/Saginaw unit, would swing the pitman arm the correct directions and shouldn't be too hard to find. But it mounts to the outside of the frame (and needs the corresponding mounting bracket) which may cause tire clearance problems. IIRc your current box mounts inboard of the frame correct?

In any case you will need a different steering column to mate to the newer boxm might as well get it from the donor truck.

The OE style power steering wasn't a terrible design, just had problems with poor quality seals (newer modern rubber fixes that) FWIW Ford Nustangs (64-73) and 63-80 Vettes used the external ram and cylinders/rebuild kits and control valves are readily availible for those.

Pics of your curret box and mounting will help

I have one of those units already; kind of big and ugly. The currant box is mounted on the outside of the frame. I will be using a column out of a 1984 1/2 ton. I kind of like the idea of mounting a rack on the outside of the frame to pull and push the drag link. I had thought of that already. I want simple and dependable. I will try to post some pix later. Thanks for the input!!!

the toyota truck box is the best hot-rod fix---it is also a rear steer instead of a front steer----

This is a 1990 dodge box on a 58 PowerWagon. Not mine but hopefully a summer project.

pic

This is a column I pulled from a 76 d600 since it was short and looked period correct. I plan to install some sort of collapsible shaft since the box sits at the front of the frame.

The 1990 box looks like a winner to me. Time to make some sparks!! Thanks for the input