Tri-Five Chevy Power Steering
By Rick Reimundez
If you saw yesterday’s Ride Of The Day, you know we appreciate a classic – you don’t get much more classic than the 55-57 Chevy. But you also don’t get much more un-classic than manual power steering. Borgeson’s power steering conversion allows you to use a lot of the bits off your existing manual steering system instead. The whole installation is as close to bolt on as you’re going to find for a power steering conversion.
If you had manual steering, you can reuse your pitman arm, drag link, and tie rods. The new self-contained conversion box even uses the same three bolt holes to mount to the frame. If your car was equipped with power-assist steering — not exactly power steering, since fully integrated power steering wasn’t available in Chevy cars until 1965 – you’ll need to remove the ram assembly, control valve, and pump. You’ll also need a drag link from a manual steering car, or buy an adapter (Mullins Part No. DLA5557).
The new box is only 3/4” wider than the stock manual box, so chances are you won’t have many problems with header clearance. If you can stick your hand flat against the manual box and still clear the headers you should be golden. The only other sticking point is that you’ll need a slightly shorter steering column. On a floor shift model that’s a pretty straightforward two-hour job. But if you’ve got a column shift model, get a pro to do it as it’s major surgery.
On the other hand you can get an aftermarket column for the Tri-Fives that is the right length. This would probably be the cheapest and fastest solution.
The conversion box is available at both Summit Racing and Jegs, but the price ranges from $437 to $570 with Summit Racing the cheaper of the two. One thing to consider, though, is that Jegs carries about twice as many Borgeson parts as Summit — and even their product description for this application has a lot more detail than Summit’s. It could be worth the extra $133 for some piece of mind and to have somewhere to turn if you need help. I’d call them both before you buy and see what they have to say.
55-57 Chevy Bolt-In Conversion [Borgeson]
BRG-800105 Conversion Box [Summit Racing]
Borgeson 55-57 Chevy Power Steering Conversion Box [Jegs]
Street Prices [Google Products]
