Wow, what a forum. I stumbled across it while searching for information. I have changed my 30 year hobby of offshore fishing/diving to try my hand at fixing up a 66 chev pickup. Not looking to build a show truck, just a nice head-turner daily driver. I hope you guys won't mind an "ask a thousand questions rookie" on board. I reacently bought a 66 chev stepside. It has a 350 with a 700r4 trans. It's suppose to be in the area of a 1986-88. Seems to run good. Has an oil leak, may be rear seal not sure. The first major thing I'd like to try doing is converting it to power steering. I have seen a few conversion kits out there from 500 to 800 dollars. Is this the way to go? I'll save the other 9,999 questions for later if I don't get kicked off the forum. Thanks for a great site. Skip.
I love when people ask this question because I found a cheep and easy answer that I am happy to pass on to others. Read what I did and have fun...Bigtimjamestown..... Why don't you go with disk brakes? you can do this cheep if you do what I did. I bought a complete 77 1/2 ton chevy for 400.00. The front spindles will work with the torshon bar suspension if you use a 7/16" to 1" reamer on the lower ball joint hole. You can even use the upper a arms from the 77 cause they are the same dimentions as the 60. The power steering and linkage will work perfectly also if you space the box about a 1/2 to 3/4" away from the frame. The power brake booster and proportioning valve along with all the brake lines will also work with no problem. You should be able to get everything you need off of the late model truck to update your 60 and sell all the left overs to get your money back and then some, I did. Check out my 61 step side, everything came out very clean without buying any expensive kits and was easy to do. These same parts will also work on the 63-66 and you don't have to ream out the lower hole on the spindle. All you have to do is change the lower ball joint to the late model one. bigtimjamestown is online now Report Post
Here's a couple of threads that are the most comprehensive I've found on the front suspension and power steering topics: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=367260 http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=374519&highlight=power+steering
Thanks a million guys. The info you guys gave is a big help. Hope you don't mind if I call on you again, I'm sure I'll have many more questions as I proceed with this project. Thanks again.
Welcome to the forum, feel free to ask away, and when you learn something new, feel free to share it with us too.
