1968 Firebird
1998 ls1
Stock 68 steering box, and lines.
Ls1 pump with the fitting from the old 68 pump swapped onto it.

First start with power steering hooked up It blew off the low pressure line at the box and drained the whole system all over my garage floor, walls, tools, car...etc.

Put a better clamp on refilled system and blew it off the reservoir....

Is this because of the 68 sae pump fitting on a 98 pump?

 

I didnt think you could swap fitting gas on a type2 pump? I know you can on the older style, but the type 2 is completely different.

 

I thought I read of people doing it and it physically fits. But this thread proves I guess I'm not sure If it works or not.

 

Until my original 1970 El Camino power steering gear box leaked at the Pitman arm seal from old age, I ran an LS power steering pump from a 1999 GMC truck motor with it. No problems, no explosive leaks. I replaced that original power steering gear box with another from a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Again, no leaks, no problems.

I must ask and please don't take this the wrong way. Are the hoses hooked up correctly?

Rick

 

My Son in-laws 73 would probably have the same box as your firebird and it runs a LS corvette power steering pump. We used a fitting like …. Really sounds like you have the high pressure side going to the low pressure line.

 

When you ran the newer pump with older gear, what hose did you use? Metric or SAE?

I never even removed the low pressure hose, and i checked online. The low pressure port is closer to the firewall according to this. https://www.camaros.net/forums/16-br...-pressure.html


I may need to consider using that fitting, with the LS1 fitting and stock 68 hose. Thank you.




The hose wouldn't blow off from a bubble in the system right? Usually it just whines then. I tried to turn the steering wheel lock to lock a bunch before starting to bleed it, but the fluid looked very foamy when it drained onto the floor....

 

I also found a fitting like this i could possibly use.



My other option is making a custom line, or swapping to the metric steering box.

 

I had a custom high pressure hose made at NAPA Auto Parts for $53 because I needed to limit hose bends / kinking and make the fit easier. No leaks using Gates Megasys Megacrimps ends. I took a length of stiff wire and bent it into the shape I needed between the high pressure outlet port on the back of the pump and the high pressure inlet port on the steering gear box. I handed that bent wire to the fellow at NAPA, told him what AN ends I needed and he built me one within thirty minutes. Easy-peezy.

I would not use the fitting above in your link to solve your O-ring to inverted flare problem because you can solve that with an all-in-one adapter to AN. The people at Lee Power Steering or Turn One Power Steering can provide an "AN-6" to whatever your steering box requires but I think I also used one of the following:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/clp-605sol/overview/

There's a lot of ways to do this and the suggestion from LLLosingit should also work.

Rick

 

It shouldn't build enough pressure on the return side to blow the line off unless it is restricted in some way, I would double check your return line to make sure it's the correct size and it's not kinked/Blocked somehow. Also check your reservoir to be sure it's not restricting it somehow. Something isn't right and the fitting shouldn't have anything to do with it. We are dealing with a recirculating system with a reservoir so something is obviously wrong.

 

Yeah thats what i was thinking, if the pressure side fitting didnt flow it wouldnt pressurize the reservoir, then blowing the hose off. I thought maybe the fitting was changing the pressure, but the pressure should never pass through the steering box into the other side without dropping...

 

Like others said it shoudn't build pressure, I have put on 6an line on it without a clamp and it held for a while lol

 

So to add closure to this thread. I got the adapter and still noticed the return line would pressurize when just turning the wheel with the engine off. So I took it all apart again. Took the reservoir off the pump. Blew air into the return port and it was blocked... so somehow it got blocked with a piece if rubber.... cleared it out and works flawless now. Doesn't even need the adapter, but since I already bought it and it also lowers flow I'll leave it on.