Midyear power steering/brakes

[Kevin]

Hello, I just gound this website, looks good. Anyone know about retrofitting power steering and brakes to a midyear? Original parts are hard to get, and I have a driver car. Will other GM brake boosters, m. cylinders, and proportioning valves work;a Fiero setup almost bolts on; do you need a J56? Any secrets to bolting on the p. steering linkage? The corvette pulley I bought does not fit on the pump; different diameter hole; any ideas why? thanks, Kevin.

[Joe L.]

Re: Midyear power steering/brakes

Kevin----


Retrofitting power steering to a midyear is a very straightforward conversion. All you really need are the parts and a GM Assembly Information Manual for instructions/diagrams. This will be found in the "N40" section of the manual.


The reason that your pump pulley won't fit is that you have the wrong pulley for the pump that you have. Original 63-74 Corvette power steering pumps use a slightly tapered pump shaft with thread on the end for a retaining nut. All of these pumps can be otherwise identified by the configuration of the resevoir. These resevoirs have an eliptical-shaped filler neck which is spot-welded to the resevoir body. Later Corvette power steering pumps, used from 1975-82, use a shaft which is not tapered and there are no threads; the pulley is simply a press fit on the round shaft. These pumps can usually be identified by the resevoir being "tear-drop" shaped with NO attached filler neck.


There are several pullies used with the tapered shaft pumps, depending upon engine/other options. The most common is a stamped steel pulley of GM #3770509. This pulley is discontinued, but available in reproduction. For the press-fit type pumps, there is only one pulley, GM #14023175, which is still available from GM.


As far as the power brake conversion goes, I can't help you much, partly because you didn't specify what year model that you have; mid year power brake setups were not all the same. In any event, and as a general comment, I believe that later model parts can be used to retrofit a mid year with power brakes. I'd suggest contacting Stainless Steel Brakes Corporation of Clarence, NY, Vette Brakes of Florida, or Master Power Brakes for conversion parts and information. You will NOT be able to obtain very many, if any, of the parts which the conversion requires from GM.