I just got done replacing the steering box and Saginaw power steering pump in my brothers 73 Charger. The gear was a Cardone (27-6542) RB as well was the p/s pump. We did the Rich Ehrenberg modification from the Pump It Down article that ran a few years back. It involved shimming the control valve in the pump. We bought a shim kit at Summit for about $17. It was Borgeson part #899001 Power Steering Flow Valve Kit. The kit comes with a holder to put the control valve in a vise to take the valve apart without damaging it, (5) .021 shims and an O-ring. Very easy to do, just make sure when you re-assemble into the pump body, the spring goes in first!
Anyway, the pump came shimmed with (3) shims equaling .061, we added an additional (2) shims, they were.021 each. The total shim pack was .103. Steering had a much better feel, If it were mine, I would add another shim, but my brother was satisfied with the way it felt. He is running a tough wheel which is about 14” diameter wheel.
Just thought I would share in case anyone was thinking of doing this, it is fairly simple, modifying the pump. Replacing the steering box in a big block w/headers was a bit of a pain and took some time.
As the Ehrenberg article states, you can make your own shims, but for $17 and Summit Racing being only 5 miles away, it was worth buying the Borgeson kit.
Anybody else do this mod and were you happy with the results?
