power steering box question

[ga-stepside]

I am replacing my power steering box. I got the same box (7802644). The new box had a yellow "insert" in the high-pressure inlet which I stupidly thought that was just a plug, so I pulled out. When I tried to connect the existing high-pressure hose it will not thread in. Now I am thinking that yellow thing needs to be in there. When I look for a new hose they all seem to provide that yellow thing. what is up with that???

[PbFut]

You will need to fine an adaptor to fit your hose to unit. The high side pressure can be very high.

[ga-stepside]

Originally Posted by PbFut

You will need to fine an adaptor to fit your hose to unit. The high side pressure can be very high.

That is what I am thinking too. Any idea what that adapter would be? I ordered a new hose for a 1984 C10, hopefully that will fit.

[Dashman]

I'm not positive on the years, but at some point the gear box fittings changed from inverted flare to metric o-ring. If your fittings don't match, then the box or the hoses are not matching. The pressure metric is 18mm, conversely the inverted flare is 11/16" or 17.46mm. Just to give you an idea of which is larger. I believe 1979 was the last year for inverted flare. I wonder if the aftermarket no longer supplies any new or rebuilt Saginaw steering gear boxes with inverted flare fittings. Are your hoses inverted flare or metric o-ring?

[MikeB]

Do you have a photo of the "yellow thing"?

There are no metric fittings on 69-72 truck steering boxes, so I'm 99% sure that would be true for your 67. The 82 C10 that I owned for a few years did have metric fittings, but I don't know which year GM started doing that.

Good point made by Dashman about brand new boxes made for older trucks possibly having metric fittings. But all I've ever seen is rebuilt OEM boxes.

[ga-stepside]

Originally Posted by Dashman

I'm not positive on the years, but at some point the gear box fittings changed from inverted flare to metric o-ring. If your fittings don't match, then the box or the hoses are not matching. The pressure metric is 18mm, conversely the inverted flare is 11/16" or 17.46mm. Just to give you an idea of which is larger. I believe 1979 was the last year for inverted flare. I wonder if the aftermarket no longer supplies any new or rebuilt Saginaw steering gear boxes with inverted flare fittings. Are your hoses inverted flare or metric o-ring?

The hoses I took off are inverted flare. The return hose does screw in but after some reach, I realized that really won't work either. The new box I have I bought several years ago but the "beat the frame on a '67" kind of freaked me out. LOL, so I never installed it. Turns out the previous owned beat the frame to fit and this new box has the same part number on it. I have ordered two new hoses.

[ga-stepside]

Originally Posted by MikeB

Do you have a photo of the "yellow thing"?

There are no metric fittings on 69-72 truck steering boxes, so I'm 99% sure that would be true for your 67. The 82 C10 that I owned for a few years did have metric fittings, but I don't know which year GM started doing that.

Good point made by Dashman about brand new boxes made for older trucks possibly having metric fittings. But all I've ever seen is rebuilt OEM boxes.

I knew that but like I said to Dashman I bought this box years ago from Rockauto and am pretty sure I bought is for a 1967, before I knew much about these trucks. Anyway, I have new hoses and pump for a 1980-1987 on the way.
No picture of the yellow thing I took out but all the newer hose I looked at have that and the o-rings included. One article I saw says the fitting will create threads in the yellow seal.

[Dashman]

After sleeping on it and if I had done 1 minutes worth of researching that part number, I would have confirmed my thoughts that it requires the metric o-ring fittings. Meaning a previous owner changed to that gear box. ...and reading your response, they didn't change the pump? Your "mystery yellow thing", is it like the attached photo? I think it was just a temporary plug. *Edit: The return port size is 5/8" or 15.875mm compared to 16mm metric o-ring port. Just to give you an idea of how close they match.

[ga-stepside]

Originally Posted by Dashman

After sleeping on it and if I had done 1 minutes worth of researching that part number, I would have confirmed my thoughts that it requires the metric o-ring fittings. Meaning a previous owner changed to that gear box. ...and reading your response, they didn't change the pump? Your "mystery yellow thing", is it like the attached photo? I think it was just a temporary plug. *Edit: The return port size is 5/8" or 15.875mm compared to 16mm metric o-ring port. Just to give you an idea of how close they match.

Yep I agree it needs the metric o-ring hoses. That picture does not look what I took out, my yellow thing had no threads. The pump I had used flared fitting on both ports, so I am changing that to metric o-ring type too. Man, I should have just lived with the leaking box, LOL.
Thanks for your help.

[ga-stepside]

Originally Posted by Dashman

After sleeping on it and if I had done 1 minutes worth of researching that part number, I would have confirmed my thoughts that it requires the metric o-ring fittings. Meaning a previous owner changed to that gear box. ...and reading your response, they didn't change the pump? Your "mystery yellow thing", is it like the attached photo? I think it was just a temporary plug. *Edit: The return port size is 5/8" or 15.875mm compared to 16mm metric o-ring port. Just to give you an idea of how close they match.

I have sent Edelmann a tech support question asking what that yellow thing is for. Hopefully they will respond.

[MikeB]

Whatever your "yellow thing" is, it would never be used in a pressure port. Threaded or not, it's probably just a dust cover.

[Dashman]

You're welcome. Seems like you were going to deal with the issue at some point. The only other resolution would have been to find an original gear box rebuilt or capable of being rebuilt and correct the frame mounting area, and that would not be an easy task. I think maybe the PO did what was easy for them at the time. Sometimes a person runs into a depleted or overpriced market, similar to what I've experienced with 3/4 ton front caliper brackets. It should be a functioning leak free system after your work.

[ga-stepside]

Originally Posted by MikeB

Whatever your "yellow thing" is, it would never be used in a pressure port. Threaded or not, it's probably just a dust cover.

You are probably right. I guess the thing that confused me was it was in the steering box and was difficult to get out. Granted it sat in my garage in the shipping box for many years so it might have just been stuck due to being in there so long.

[ga-stepside]

Originally Posted by Dashman

You're welcome. Seems like you were going to deal with the issue at some point. The only other resolution would have been to find an original gear box rebuilt or capable of being rebuilt and correct the frame mounting area, and that would not be an easy task. I think maybe the PO did what was easy for them at the time. Sometimes a person runs into a depleted or overpriced market, similar to what I've experienced with 3/4 ton front caliper brackets. It should be a functioning leak free system after your work.

It was getting to the point that I had to fill it too often.

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Originally Posted by Dashman

I'm not positive on the years, but at some point the gear box fittings changed from inverted flare to metric o-ring. If your fittings don't match, then the box or the hoses are not matching. The pressure metric is 18mm, conversely the inverted flare is 11/16" or 17.46mm. Just to give you an idea of which is larger. I believe 1979 was the last year for inverted flare. I wonder if the aftermarket no longer supplies any new or rebuilt Saginaw steering gear boxes with inverted flare fittings. Are your hoses inverted flare or metric o-ring?

Originally Posted by MikeB

Do you have a photo of the "yellow thing"?

There are no metric fittings on 69-72 truck steering boxes, so I'm 99% sure that would be true for your 67. The 82 C10 that I owned for a few years did have metric fittings, but I don't know which year GM started doing that.

Good point made by Dashman about brand new boxes made for older trucks possibly having metric fittings. But all I've ever seen is rebuilt OEM boxes.

Funnily enough I ran into that last month when I went to put new calipers on my '72. I had bought a pair of new AC Delco's for the front about four years ago and finally got to the point of installing them. Passenger side was fine, I got to the driver side and could not get the banjo bolt to thread in. Tried the bolt on the other side and that worked. I was real close to running a tap in to clean up the end, then I decided to throw a metric bolt in just to see and it went right in. My research showed that around roughly '79 they switched to metric threads on those as well. My only guess is whoever was machining new calipers didn't change the tooling for the next batch of older parts. It was a head scratcher for a little bit.

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by 1972CheyenneSuper

Funnily enough I ran into that last month when I went to put new calipers on my '72.

Just noticed on my 69 that one of the rear bleeders screws is 3/8-24, but it has a 10mm hex head. On the other side the thread is unknown, but the hex head is 5/16".

About that unknown thread size, I have the most common SAE and metric thread size and pitch gauges, but none of them were a fit. Maybe it was a 7mm, a gauge size I don't have. I also didn't have a pitch gauge that fit. Go figure.

ChiCom parts are everywhere. Even AC Delco has sold out.

[ga-stepside]

Originally Posted by ga-stepside

I have sent Edelmann a tech support question asking what that yellow thing is for. Hopefully they will respond.

I got an answer for Edelmann.
"Dale, You recently sent an email to our customer service department asking about the yellow cap included with your PS hose. That cap is designed to go over the return port on the reservoir to allow you to perform a power steering flush. We recommend a flush whenever you replace a power steering component.

So that clears that up.