New power steering with a warranty

Question:

I have a 1970 Nova with a 307 cid engine and only two options—an AM radio and Powerglide transmission. The car does not have power steering and I would like to install it. Is there a supplier that can supply all of the parts, or at least all of the major parts, in the form of a kit with a warranty? Visiting the scrapyards is always fun, but for this project I would rather have a warm feeling that the parts going in are good.

Answer:

Various aftermarket companies sell the components you need to convert to power steering. If you do not need to have exact OEM-appearing components, one that I can recommend from personal experience is Flaming River (www.flamingriver.com). They sell a brand-new steering box, line kit, power steering pump and U-joint (to connect the steering box input shaft to your original steering column) that will all work with your car.

You will need to buy hardware to mount the pump, power steering fluid and a power steering pitman arm, all of which should be readily available from most auto parts stores.

Another alternative is to buy all the needed parts from an auto parts store. You can buy new lines, rag joint and pitman arm, and a rebuilt pump and steering box, but you will probably have to pay a core charge for the pump and box since you don’t have any cores to trade in.

And the warranty terms will, of course, vary by store.