Retrofit PS and PB to 1967 IH Pickup?

[Perci]

I'm newly registered, but have followed YT for many years. I have been trying to find a 63-68 IH pickup in good shape for years. I recently found one on the west coast with no rust at all and in mechanically great shape for a good price. However, it has manual steering and regular brakes. I intend for my kids to share it, and wanted ps and pb (it has a manual transmission, which I also want). So, how hard would it be to convert it to ps? The pb part I think would be pretty straightforward. However, for the steering, would I have to change out the entire steering column and box? I would plan on finding a donor from a salvage yard, and have all the necessary brackets and pump (I'm assuming a salvage yard truck from that year shouldn't be impossible to find).

Am I looking at a major, expensive project for something reasonably doable? My plan was to just use the truck on a semi-daily basis, and not do a total frame off restoration. So I don't want to get in over my head on major surgery right off the bat. Would the crank pulley be same, or would that have to be changed out for more grooves to handle the ps pump?

Thanks in advance for your help with any experience on this.

 

[Brown David]

I've never done that on a IH before so I don't know if the PS box would be a direct swap.

I've done it on a 1967 Jeep J 3000 Gladiator years ago, the box was a direct bolt in swap from a '71 Wagoneer as was the PB booster/MC.

I also swapped the complete drivetrain into it, 232 six, three on the tree to the Wagoneer's Buick 350 /400 Turbomatic, front and rear axles, bucket seats and console with floor shift, power windows and AC, all a direct bolt in job. I purchased the complete rotted out Wagoneer for the swap.

Made a real nice truck. Then, like a dummy, I sold it to buy something else.

I've also done it on Dodge/Plymouth cars where the steering column did have to be changed.

Your plan of buying a complete donor truck is a must in my opinion. As you stated, having all the brackets and other assorted bits and pieces is invaluable for projects like this.

Good luck and please post pictures and updates if you do proceed with this.

 

[DoubleO7]

There are a couple of good IH truck and scout websites and forums out there. Such as this one:

Power Steering conversion

Hi I'm a Newby to this forum millarky so bare wirh me. I have 73 Harvester pickup 2wd, is there a power steering kit and front disc conversion available, any ideas would be appreciated, Cheers Steve

forums.ihpartsamerica.com

My bet is that everything other than the brackets and the steering wheel was made not by IH.
Especially in the late sixties up until production stopped.

With that in mind the donor vehicle list is huge.

 

[Perci]

Thanks to everyone for their responses. All good ideas. I agree that almost all the common IH parts were used on other vehicles. Also, if I try this, having a donor truck would be essential. I am thinking of purchasing the parts and service manuals for the truck from Binder books. Has anyone used them, and what is their quality (not that there are a lot of choices). Anyway, I could compare parts diagrams and numbers to try to figure out what parts would need replacing on the steering system.

As I poke around, I also see places that offer various electric retrofits for the steering. However, I would plan to stay away from any of those, and do a simple swap of the various components with a salvage vehicle.

 

[showcrop]

I'm newly registered, but have followed YT for many years. I have been trying to find a 63-68 IH pickup in good shape for years. I recently found one on the west coast with no rust at all and in mechanically great shape for a good price. However, it has manual steering and regular brakes. I intend for my kids to share it, and wanted ps and pb (it has a manual transmission, which I also want). So, how hard would it be to convert it to ps? The pb part I think would be pretty straightforward. However, for the steering, would I have to change out the entire steering column and box? I would plan on finding a donor from a salvage yard, and have all the necessary brackets and pump (I'm assuming a salvage yard truck from that year shouldn't be impossible to find).

Am I looking at a major, expensive project for something reasonably doable? My plan was to just use the truck on a semi-daily basis, and not do a total frame off restoration. So I don't want to get in over my head on major surgery right off the bat. Would the crank pulley be same, or would that have to be changed out for more grooves to handle the ps pump?

Thanks in advance for your help with any experience on this.

I don't know about the PS and PB, but in 2019 I got a car that I worked on for four and a half years back on the road. Three years in I wished that I had taken the body off the frame to start with. I could have saved a lot of time and contortions.

 

[Mike Groom]

You may want to consider electric steering as an option, it's simple to install and works well on a lot of older vehicles. As for the power brakes it's a little more complicated than you might think, with a manual trans. you have a hydraulic clutch in a lot of the IH pickups, the clutch master mounts on the firewall next to the brake master, there isn't room to put a booster next to it, a hydro boost may be an option but I'm not familiar with them. Do some research before you proceed. I have changed over from manual to power steering but I did use a donor truck. Parts are getting hard to find, you could call the Scout Connection and get their advise, they also have a supply of truck parts.

 

[Perci]

Mike, thank you for the information. You are right on with the power brakes. Given the location of the clutch cylinder next to the master cylinder, switching is trickier. A few days ago I called IH Parts America. They said they have a power brakes kit that replaces both the master and clutch cylinders, combining them into a single unit. It should be a bolt on replacement, so with that and new lines, it should be fairly straightforward. The price of the parts comes to $1,049 (they don't list it on their website). It sounds steep, but of course I would end up with brand new brake and clutch master cylinders and vacuum booster, so compared to rebuilding all those parts, the price differential isn't too too bad.

The power steering is not going to be easy. The information I am finding is that there was a changeover to Saginaw steering late '67 into '68. Even if I had Saginaw, swapping over to a ps system would involve a new steering column and adding a bracket to the frame for the new steering box. Some major surgery it seems. I have the parts book on order, and will need to study it to see what potential donor vehicles I can find. So if I go with the truck (I haven't purchased it yet pending what I can find out), I can do pb with ~ $1,000 investment, but ps will be a major project.