Power steering kit

[Greg Coffin]

Template vs Parts

The bracket worked out very well. I'm happy to send you the template, or I could have a set of plates made for you and you could weld them up. I can get a price from him next week when I get back in town.

[pambrosio]

The bracket worked out very well. I'm happy to send you the template, or I could have a set of plates made for you and you could weld them up. I can get a price from him next week when I get back in town.

Glad to hear you had success with it.

Having them made would be great, I'll email through here as to not further hijack this thread. If you can reply with a price once you get around to it I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Charles Talbert]

Ok, here is an update. After many hours of grinding and fitting, I was finally able to mount the steering box and connect the pitman arm. Next, I turned my attention to mounting the alternator bracket (I am changing to a 12 volt system) and the power steering pump bracket. Seemed really simple in the directions. Just unbolt and bolt back on right? Wrong. Here is the big issue. My block is not held together with bolts. Everything is a stud and a nut. Guess what you can't do to a stud. Make it longer. The only way to do that is to remove the entire stud and get longer studs. I was changing my water pump anyway as it was leaking so I put the new one on and guess what. It is not the same thickness as the original (this is a 1948 model). The studs from the block are too short to go through the housing. In addition, the alternator bracket has to bolt down at one of the water pump studs. Since they were too short, it was not going to work. I happen to have a stud removal tool. Out it came. The first stud cracked right out. Guess what happens when you try to remove studs from a nearly 70 year old engine. The second stud snapped off in the block. Next, I had to remove the fender on the passenger site, the hood, and then the entire radiator assembly so I could drill out the broken stud at the water pump. Once I did that, I was able to get longer bolts and just bold it down. Easy bolt on kit right!! So now the entire front end sheet metal has been taken off. Next I tried to mount the power steering pump bracket. Guess what. The heads are held down with studs. Again, you can't make a stud longer, all you can do it remove and replace. We now already know what happens when you try to take a stud out of a 70 year old block. So that was not going to happen again. Instead, I had to take the bracket for the power steering pump to the machine shot to get it milled down. It was 3/8 inch steel that was to mount on top of the head. I have had it milled down to 3/16 inch thick, so I would have 3/16 inch of threads on the head studs to mount the **** thing. I haven't picked it up from the machine shop yet. Also, I had to have the alternator adjusting arm cut off and the offset installed the opposite direction. The original direction put the alternator arm touching the power steering pump bracket where a bolt has to go so it was not going to work at all. So far, I could have just picked a random car from the junkyard and it would have fit better than this kit from VPW.

If someone had hacked up the frame rail on my truck like in these photos, I'd have a strong tendency to invite them out behind the shop. Why on earth would anyone even bother to build a kit that would require cutting and weakening a frame rail any such way?? We build our own custom hydraulic steering kits for Power Wagon, and it certainly doesn't require all that hacking to install it. This is outrageous!

[Mkeller131]

I so agree with you Charles. I haven't seen the kit you are building but it must be better than whatever this thing is. I feel like I should drive to Iowa and kick someone at VPW's ***.

[Mkeller131]

Here is another update. I got the brackets back from the machine shop and they fit. Yea. However, it does not appear that the alternator is aligned correctly and there is no adjustment in the bracket. I will have to trouble shoot that as well. Also, once you have all this installed, you have to connect the sterring column to the steering box. Guess what won't fit throught the firewall now that the original location has changed? You guessed it, the universal joint supplied with the kit will not fit as the steering box is not aligned in the same location as the original. You have to shave off about 1/4 inch from the steering column opening. Then it will indeed fit. However, there is no mount on the universal joint for the outer column (the part that does not spin) and the universal joint is too large to slide the column down over it. So, once you have it all back in place, the outer steering column is only attached in 1 spot which allows that outer shaft to move around, which allows it to touch the inner steering rod. We are going to have to fabricate something to let the outer column sit in to stabilize it. The floor pan also has to be cut out in 1 spot by about an inch since the location of the column has moved. I have the system installed now and I will be moving on to installing a Painless wiring harness. I hope that step is not nearly as hard as this easy bolt on kit. If you are thinking of doing a power steering modification, this is NOT the way to do it. If anyone at VPW suggests it to you, you will feel better just punching them in the face. You can then use the $1,200.00 you would have spent on this kit for your bail money. At least your back won't hurt when you get out.

[Charles Talbert]

I so agree with you Charles. I haven't seen the kit you are building but it must be better than whatever this thing is. I feel like I should drive to Iowa and kick someone at VPW's ***.

I have not seen a VPW kit as they would ship it out, so I can't make a judgment call concerning pros or cons as to the intentions they had in mind for installing it. I do know I wouldn't sell anything that required that sort of frame modification. Ours comes with a detailed installation manual explaining completely how it is meant to be installed.

[Charles Talbert]

Here is another update. I got the brackets back from the machine shop and they fit. Yea. However, it does not appear that the alternator is aligned correctly and there is no adjustment in the bracket. I will have to trouble shoot that as well. Also, once you have all this installed, you have to connect the sterring column to the steering box. Guess what won't fit throught the firewall now that the original location has changed? You guessed it, the universal joint supplied with the kit will not fit as the steering box is not aligned in the same location as the original. You have to shave off about 1/4 inch from the steering column opening. Then it will indeed fit. However, there is no mount on the universal joint for the outer column (the part that does not spin) and the universal joint is too large to slide the column down over it. So, once you have it all back in place, the outer steering column is only attached in 1 spot which allows that outer shaft to move around, which allows it to touch the inner steering rod. We are going to have to fabricate something to let the outer column sit in to stabilize it. The floor pan also has to be cut out in 1 spot by about an inch since the location of the column has moved. I have the system installed now and I will be moving on to installing a Painless wiring harness. I hope that step is not nearly as hard as this easy bolt on kit. If you are thinking of doing a power steering modification, this is NOT the way to do it. If anyone at VPW suggests it to you, you will feel better just punching them in the face. You can then use the $1,200.00 you would have spent on this kit for your bail money. At least your back won't hurt when you get out.

We supply a bronze column bushing that centers the shaft in the tube on the bottom end. We also supply a heavy bracket with clamp that stabilizes the column tube at the bottom, so it is rigidly supported at both the upper and lower end. Stabilization of the column tube at the bottom allows for using a double u-joint which takes care of the misalignment issue you spoke about. We can't retail our kit for $1,200, I would say though that cost should tell you something, a reliable, high quality kit like we market can't be put together for anywhere near the range of $1,200.

[CSCameron]

Charles, can you post some details and pics of your unit and how much you are asking for it? Maybe start another thread? I'm interested.

Thanks,
Clark

[Charles Talbert]

Charles, can you post some details and pics of your unit and how much you are asking for it? Maybe start another thread? I'm interested.

Thanks,
Clark

Please contact us by phone or from the contact us page on our website.

[Mkeller131]

Charles do you have a photo of your unit on a ffpw?

[Charles Talbert]

Charles do you have a photo of your unit on a ffpw?

You can check many photos of projects in the rebuild process by going to our website and clicking on client photo pages. We are also preparing material for a large site update currently that I hope to have up within the next couple of weeks. This will add several projects and hundreds of pictures on the site.

[VPWS]

Power Steering Kit Issues

Here is another update. I got the brackets back from the machine shop and they fit. Yea. However, it does not appear that the alternator is aligned correctly and there is no adjustment in the bracket. I will have to trouble shoot that as well. Also, once you have all this installed, you have to connect the sterring column to the steering box. Guess what won't fit throught the firewall now that the original location has changed? You guessed it, the universal joint supplied with the kit will not fit as the steering box is not aligned in the same location as the original. You have to shave off about 1/4 inch from the steering column opening. Then it will indeed fit. However, there is no mount on the universal joint for the outer column (the part that does not spin) and the universal joint is too large to slide the column down over it. So, once you have it all back in place, the outer steering column is only attached in 1 spot which allows that outer shaft to move around, which allows it to touch the inner steering rod. We are going to have to fabricate something to let the outer column sit in to stabilize it. The floor pan also has to be cut out in 1 spot by about an inch since the location of the column has moved. I have the system installed now and I will be moving on to installing a Painless wiring harness. I hope that step is not nearly as hard as this easy bolt on kit. If you are thinking of doing a power steering modification, this is NOT the way to do it. If anyone at VPW suggests it to you, you will feel better just punching them in the face. You can then use the $1,200.00 you would have spent on this kit for your bail money. At least your back won't hurt when you get out.

First off let me say that on behalf of Vintage Power Wagons, I'm sorry to hear that you have had problems with the Power Steering Kit you purchased from us. We would like to make sure that you and everyone else knows that we do offer support for these Power Steering Kits and we would have liked to have had the opportunity to assist you in this process, as we know it's not an easy bolt-on kit.

Though we do offer support on this kit, it should be known that neither the kit nor the instructions were created by Vintage Power Wagons, so you may also want to reach out to the manufacturer and let them know of the difficulties you are having.

We do our best to offer support on these kits as well as every part we sell, no matter how challenging that may be. We even offer support to people on vehicles and parts that were not purchased from us. However, if a customer isn't going to reach out to us when they are having either a defective part or installation issue, we're not sure what we can to do to best remedy this situation.

We strive to do the best that we can to keep the trucks on the road and prospective owners happy and taken care of on a daily basis. We ship parts out to literally thousands of people a month. As in any business, problems will occur and sometimes parts and pieces don't always go as planned. If someone is having issues with parts and/or services that we offer, please, by all means, pick up the phone and call us. Our goal is to do the best job that we can to contribute to the vintage Dodge truck world. Please reach out and let us know if there's anything we can do within reason to remedy this or any other situation that may occur for you.

[Charles Talbert]

There you go, VPW has reached out to you in a effort to help make this right for you. They are saying up front, it isn't their kit. I'll add that issues like this are why we build in house any kits we sell, I learned long ago that it is the only way you get things like you think it should be. We design and build them, we have installed many and know things work as they should before we send them out. Another thing I've learned is all vintage trucks that share the same name, model, etc., are not exactly the same when it comes to the fitment of various components. Many times we have built components from drawings we designed only to realize they did not fit the next project truck exactly like they fit the one before. In light of this, there will be minor tweaks that will be necessary sometimes, that is why I like doing things in house. We can check fitment as systems get built and assembled. Much easier than trying to deal long distance when someone has an issue and you can't actually inspect it to see what the problem is. Any possibilities like this we have seen are noted in our instruction manuals with a thorough explanation of how to deal with certain issues that we have realized could come up.

[Mkeller131]

Thank you Charles. To VPW: Its not advertised or mentioned you dont produce the kit. With that being said, you are selling this product so it's extremely poor design and fitment reflects on your company. If it were me, I would remove this kit from your sales. It wad clearly not designed for a B-1 Power Wagon. Perhaps you would consider selling Charles' product or another user here on my thread that experienced the same issues I did. He is building brackets that actually fit. I dont expect anything from you other than the product I am paying hard earned money for. Thats all anybody wants. You guys are the industry leader so make sure what comes out of your shop reflects that. This product does not do that which is a huge disappointment.

[W_A_Watson_II]

... if a customer isn't going to reach out to us when they are having either a defective part or installation issue, we're not sure what we can to do to best remedy this situation.

We strive to do the best that we can to keep the trucks on the road and prospective owners happy and taken care of on a daily basis. ... If someone is having issues with parts and/or services that we offer, please, by all means, pick up the phone and call us. Our goal is to do the best job that we can to contribute to the vintage Dodge truck world. ...

Very good points, Customer Service sometimes starts with the Customer. It's always a good starting point after you research a problem/difficulty to contact the seller/distributor or manufacture.

... Another thing I've learned is all vintage trucks that share the same name, model, etc., are not exactly the same when it comes to the fitment of various components. Many times we have built components from drawings we designed only to realize they did not fit the next project truck exactly like they fit the one before. In light of this, there will be minor tweaks that will be necessary sometimes, ...

Charles is correct, unless you know the entire usage and service history of the truck, you don't know what parts are "factory" correct, or what other modifications or damage has occured. Many of these trucks engines have been rebuilt many times by many shops and shade tree mechanics, so finding a stud or bolt in the wrong location on the head is a very common occurrence.