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Uhhhh Power Steering Lines?

Resurrection_Joe

Resurrection_Joe

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Man I aplogize for my amazingly random posting of questions....

Anyway

I have a 78 truck.... I think.... with a 78 or so engine, I think

What I KNOW is, I have a 85 2wd sterring box

I went to a parts store 50 miles away and asked for fittings

I assumed I could just buy the box ends and hose clamp them on

Parts store guy sats, "NONONONONONONONONONO"

So do I need some fancy custom lines or are the two types of lines the same on the pump end and different on the box end?

Can someone like WTO or TYR or HGG make me some custom lines?

Thanks for the suffering of myself
 
Why not just get a newer pump? It would be less hassle and probably less money in the end.
 
I think he's probably saying that a hose clamp wont hold up to the pressure of the system. The pressure line is metal coming out of the box, then goes to rubber (I dont know the name of the crimp that is done) but it is crimped around the rubber in 2 full revolutions on my line.
 
I live in the country (farmland) and the local NAPA fabs pressure hoses (hydraulic), try them or a heavy equipment (bobcat-backhoe) rental/repair shop, Tractor Supply, or junkyard (from vehicle w/hoses still connected). The fab shop may require your "old" fittings though.
 
Yunit - I'd have to buy a new bump and lines, I assume this would cost more than just two new lines, maybe not, the parts guy suggested it too

gm4x - The parts guy also had a section where they made lines, but they said becasue of liability they wouldnt BASTARDS! Heh

Thanks for the help so far everyone

I think my pressured line is the one I didn'y hack apart when taking it apart. I twisted the hose clamp line end to bits
 
they have the ability to make hoses, but refuse to because of liability? Hmmmmm /forums/images/graemlins/doah.gif. Might send someone else in with your hose, but don't tell 'em it's for an automotive power steering unit? Tell 'em it's fer yer John Deere /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif
 
Good luck finding someone that can make them. In the entire Seattle area I could find mention of ONE person, and from talking to him, it sounded very expensive.

Go find a newer pump, take the fitting out of the back of it (where the pressure line threads in) and swap it with the one on your old pump.
 
At the NAPA I work out we make hydraulic hoses. The only thing we will not make are brake line. PS hoses we make all the time.

Chris
 
[ QUOTE ]
Go find a newer pump, take the fitting out of the back of it (where the pressure line threads in) and swap it with the one on your old pump.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just told someone last week to do this same thing. Funny how easy we can forget such an easy solution sometimes.
 
So what you would do is take the "ends" (fittings) that he would need, say early on one end, late on the other, cut them off of whatever you have as a donor, and crimp them to a rubber hose?

Not a bad option, but in this case I'd just swap the fitting on the pump. No offense, it just has to be cheaper as long as you can get your hands on another power steering pump.
 
Older power steering systems used flare fittings and newer ones use Oring fittings. I'm not sure about the exact years, though. On the return side, you can use transmission hose and hose clamps. On the pressure side, you can either replace the fittting on the back of the pump with one that has the style fitting to match your box, or you can cut the metal line part of the pressure hose and use a compression fitting to attach a different end. For example, if you have 2 pressure hoses, one with Oring fittings and one with flare fittings: cut the metal line (with a tubing cutter like you use on copper pipe) about 2" past the fitting. Then do the same to the coresponding end of the other hose. Use the compression fitting to attach whichever end you need.
 
If the line can be flared I think that would be much better than trying a compression fitting.

81 and older is SAE flare fittings

82 and newer is metric o ring fittings
 
Uhhhh Tim, not to sound rude here, but I think you may be wrong about somehting or I may have an anomalous steering box here

I checked with Brent and it is an 85 2wd box

(the chunks of hoses that came with it have O rings)

I'm fairly sure mine is an 78 4wd box

(the truck has flare fittings)

The problem with you comes in that when I read your post, I went all willy nilly and thought I had threaded a standard fitting into a metric hole.

So I run outside in my underwear and cape and start turning the line wrenches

Turns out, the one hose that didnt get damaged, (the original 78 pressure line) had threaded into the 85 box fine, the only difference was that the box was O ring type and the line flare type

The end I bought for the non pressure hose that I cut and clamped was the same as the 78 non pressure hose that I mangled in every way, and threaded in fine

So the thing is, I don't think they're metric, on mine anyway

So my question is, can I just buy myself a new pressure hose and pop it on? I think the chunk brent left in the box is big enough to use for the non pressure line, or I could just get anew one of those

Anywone have a clue what Im rambling about?
 
1. I'm absolutely certain that I have a 1982 box on my truck with metric o ring type fittings. If it has an O ring, it's metric.

2. You can tell the fittings apart in the box by sticking your finger through the pressure line's hole. You can feel the spot where the o ring is going to fit. That's how I knew I had the wrong box (it was an '81 box) on my truck.

My best suggestion is that you clearly identify what you're working with, because there's no way that there was an SAE flared box on a 1985 truck as far as I know. Not stock to the truck anyway.

You can always try swapping sector shafts, you know.
 
I went to the local Ace today and tried shoving the fitting that came in the 85 2WD box into random things, and what it finally threaded into was 3/8ths hydralic fittings, so aparently, thats what one of the lines is, I realize the other is a bit smaller

Anyway I am thinking about swapping the shafts, but dear god what a paint hat box was to get on the first time, plus the box is new

I think I'll just end up buying a new pump and lines from a 1985 C10

Thanks for the help

Oh

The fitting from my 78 took some standard line wrench, the fitting from my 85 box took 18mm (well that was the only thing that fit in a quick check, some standard may fit) but they were both 3/8ths pipe thread

I was trying to finagle my way into making some power steering lines out of the hydrailic hoses they had at the store, could I just use those with some thread sealer?
 
One more easy/cheep solution would be to swap the reservoirs. That that's where the fittings are, so you just need a reservoir that matches your box, then the proper pressure hose from the parts store. The return side can be hose clamped, just like they did from the factory on my '73.
 
[ QUOTE ]
One more easy/cheep solution would be to swap the reservoirs. That that's where the fittings are, so you just need a reservoir that matches your box, then the proper pressure hose from the parts store. The return side can be hose clamped, just like they did from the factory on my '73.

[/ QUOTE ]

nope, the fitting is in the pump, through the res.
 
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