79 dodge b100.my manual steering is super tight and tough to park. my 74 dart seems like a breeze to turn. i dont know if its the gearbox being bad. i did have to tighten up the slack on it however it was tight before that anyway. so my question is are vans alot harder to turn and park. i have to put all my weight into parking. if that is normal, i would like to know how easy or difficult it is to put power steering in the van.and what parts do i need to make this work?

You will need a power steering steering column (easy), a power steering gearbox (easy), and a power steering pump, bracket, pulleys, and hoses (easy). Basically find a van with power steering in the boneyard and strip it of all the steering parts.

Vans are a bit heavier than A bodies and more of the weight is directly over the front wheels. The weight over the wheels makes the tires hard to turn unless the van is moving.

You could go the cheaper and easier route and just get a bigger steering wheel.

You will need to get the steering column from a 79-84 Van, but the gearbox should be able to come from any 79-03 van and the pump, brackets, pulleys and hoses can come from just about any slant six vehicle with power steering.

If you are interested, I have a 1983 Dodge van steering column with tile steering I would sell.

Van power steering boxes are the same as '73+ passenger car steering boxes. When I converted my '72 B300 I used the gearbox, pump and hoses from a '78 Dodge Magnum I parted out. I didn't have to change the whole steering column, just the part between the rag joint and the gearbox.

_________________
Joshua

Cool! I thought the columns were different, but I am glad I was wrong.

Sounds like you just need to find a slant six powered passenger car with power steering and you are set!

Not sure if it's the same but I swapped from the rag joint down too. Stripped a truck of brackets, pump, power box and column to rag joint. Unbolt one and rebolt the other, good to go.

_________________
225, Offenhauser, Holley 350, A833OD, 3:55, GM HEI,99 Durango starter
BOOSTED! WH1C, BIG FMIC, 10#
Operation Noble Eagle 03-05
Operation Iraqi Freedom 05-07
Operation Enduring Freedom 12- 13