CaStylin

Just as the thread title says… Has anyone added power steering to Impala?

The more I get out and work on the 68 impala the more I see how big this beast is, and with out power steering how hard it will be to get around in this long and heavy beast

I found this Power steering conversion kit on CPP (Classic Performance Products) . All in all it doesn’t “seem” like it will take that much work to do the conversion but I was wondering if any one had experience with switching to power steering, with this kit/company or could suggest other power steering conversion kits

Thanks for the help

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CaStylin - Lots of show... Even more go
~1968 Impala - 327, more to come soon
~1979 Monte Carlo - Stock for now
~2003 Impala - T61 Turbo, intercooler, Plog, much much more

dintymoore

I've never had a big GM car without power steering.

That kit looks good and doesn't look like too much trouble.

I don't know it everybody does this but I've haven't bought power steering fluid in decades, I use GM type transmission fluid. A Toyota van I worked on actually said in the manual to use GM type transmission fluid for the power steering. I know Honda makes a big deal about only using their power steering fluid. But from what I can tell, the power steering fluid they sell at car parts places is repackaged trans fluid at double the price. This is only my deduction.

When I first started dating my wife, her mother had a '65 Bel Air/Biscayne whatever and it had standard column shift with no power steering. It was brutal.

These 2 ton cars without power steering are crazy, I'd do the conversion in a heartbeat. Maybe you could find the parts used for cheap off of another year/model?

77Impala

Very nice kit, should take less than 5 hours to install yourself. Trick will be getting the correct belt to run the pump and other accessories already on the car.

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CaStylin

I dont think that would be that hard... If i replaces the OEM manual set up with a OEM power steering set up (thinking that P/S was an option on the 68 impala) then there should be OEM style belts to fit.

__________________
CaStylin - Lots of show... Even more go
~1968 Impala - 327, more to come soon
~1979 Monte Carlo - Stock for now
~2003 Impala - T61 Turbo, intercooler, Plog, much much more

dintymoore

The 68 Impala I had, and the two 69's all came with power steering.

Although it was an option, I'll bet very few, if any Impalas or Caprices came from the factory without it, since they were the upper crust models.

Just use a piece of string to size the belt.

BTW, the original design belt (the thin one) never worked all that great. On my '69 I ended up swapping all the stuff (there was a lot) to use the wider belt setup off of an '85. It didn't slip like the thin belt did.

I like Gates belts over all the rest, and Goodyear second. Napa belts are made by Gates.