68 Brockway - Power Steering Upgrade

[oldspwr]

As most of you know I am the new care taker for Russ Bachman's '68 360 'Ole Shepp'. Of course the most popular question is "Are you going to paint it red and white???" Actually the truck is going to stay exactly like it is with the exception of a handful of items that were on Russ's list of 'things to do...'



One improvement that I am going to make is the addition of power steering. The truck is a bear to steer, especially when I am trying to shuttle it in my driveway and get in parked in the garage. A few years ago I bought a complete power steering set up from Richie Z. that was set up for a Cummins. It included the 592 Sheppard box, frame brackets, supports, reservoir and Vickers V20F pump with the coupler. I used the box on another project but was able to get a another one from Stan A.

I dug all the parts out last week and realized my first challenge was the mounting of the power steering pump. The truck originally had an NH250 but was replaced with a NHCT270 out of a single axle Huskidrive 361. Russ stopped by over this past weekend and mentioned that the 270 originally had a belt drive power steering pump. I took a look at the motor and realized there are no provisions for the power steering pump on the back of the oil pump...



So my question is what do I need to change to be able to use the gear driven Vickers pump? I believe it will be similar to this pic of a 350 Big Cam I have...



On a side note, the OEM Cummins tag is missing. It was replaced by a tag from 'Cummins Metro Inc. New York and New Jersey' when it was rebuilt.

Thanks,

Tom

[Huskiedrive2]

Tom - all the 855 series Cummins oil pumps mount in the same manner and bolt pattern. The only variable is the PTO window and the configuration of the sump line. Take the small pump (no PTO) off and install one from a NTC350 or similar. You will need the sump line as well. While looking for a pump from a salvage yard, stay with the small cam engines. The Big Cams have a different oiling system and run at a lower oil pressure. I've done this conversion several times without any issue beyond fitting the sump line. On the small pump (no PTO) the threaded hole for the sump line is angled downward towards the connection on the oil pan. On the big pump (PTO) the threaded connection is parallel to the pan rail. As I said, get the sump line or plan to make a flex hose when installing the new larger pump. The only other thing you will need to mount the pump is the female splined coupler to go between the oil pump and the Vickers pump. This coupler is an industry standard spline and is available thru Cummins or in the aftermarket. I have a couple as well.

[oldspwr]

Thanks for your help Stan, I appreciate it! I will start looking for the correct oil pump now...

On a side note, are there any pro's or con's using the gear drive power steering pump vs. the belt driven pump?

Tom

[Huskiedrive2]

Go with the gear driven pump. No belt to maintain, and a gear drive has a much larger remote reservoir which aids cooling. The reservoir is mounted directly on the pump with a belt drive and only holds about 2 1/2 quarts. Overheating could be an issue with the large 592 Sheppard box. The small reservoir belt drive was mostly used on the 200 series with the small box.

Edit - some of the pumps on the earliest of the Big Cam Cummins 855 series may also work for you. Stay away fro the BC's with the bypass cooling. They are the engines that run the lower oil pressure pump.

[oldspwr]

Sure glad the message board is back up! Thanks to Nick for all his working putting this back online!

Now back to the power steering upgrade...

Stan, thanks for your input on the belt verses gear driven power steering pump...

To begin I dug out all of the parts I had collected for the upgrade, including the large C channel that is need to go over the frame...



This part had the section cut out of it to remove the steering box (the factory Brockway service procedure). I misplaced the section that came out but it still wouldn’t we be a hard piece to duplicate and weld in. But for some reason the bottom of the C channel was extremely rusty and paper thin. I thought about cutting it out and replacing it but then decided it would take the same amount of time to make a new one. By chance I wound up talking to a local fabrication shop a few months ago and they bent some 1/4" plate for a hitch I made for my Dad’s 361 (more on that at a later time...) So I had them bend a new piece of 1/4" plate for me...





At that point I started transferring all of the holes, etc to the new piece...



I started cutting the large hole with the cutoff wheel but finished it with a jig. In my experience I never had much using bimetal hole saws for the larger holes so this worked ok for me...



Once the larger hole was done I moved onto drilling the holes. I removed the vice from the mill and clamped the new piece to the table...



More to follow...

[oldspwr]

I also drilled the bottom holes with the mill also and this worked out fairly well...



I waited until all the holes were drill before I cut the curved section out of the top since I knew the curve would make it harder to keep level on the mill table. I transferred the shape from the existing piece onto a piece of cardboard and then traced it on the new piece...





And when all was said and done this is what I wound up with...





More to follow...

[oldspwr]

I have the camper parked in front of the 360 so it’s pretty tight quarters, so some of my pics will be a little close...



I had my Brother stop over and he was able to help me remove the fender and set it off to the side. At that point I started removing all the other brackets, etc...



Once everything was removed I dug out the front section of a 760 frame rail I had. This is from the front end we bought for my Dad’s 361 when we converted it to power steering. I made another cardboard pattern and transferred it to the 360’s rail...



I wasn’t able to remove the manual Ross steering box due to the length of the shaft. So I left it in place while I was cutting. Once I made my first cut using the cutoff wheel, I was able to pull to the box out. I also realized this truck has a 3/8” thick frame as well...



After a little more trimming, cutting and filing I wound up with this...



That’s it for now!

[Haytooter]

Tom, I've two more things to be thankful for on Thursday, the site is back up and your interesting and detailed presentations are back. Thanks for taking the time to document what you're up to, your work inspires me to try my best on whatever job I'm tackling. Have a great Thanksgiving.

[Green Giant2]

Thumbs up

[Second]

Thanks Tom! These are the best.

[Huskiedrive2]

Looks good Tom. Other than the fabrication of a new "over-rail" the conversion is not that hard of a job. Lots of "measure twice and cut once!" Tech line is open if you have a question. Stan

[oldspwr]

Thanks for everyone's comments!!!

When I last left off I had just finished cutting the notch out of the frame. When I was finished with that I trial fit the new C channel piece I made...



Using the C channel as a guide I marked the new holes for the Sheppard box. At that point I realized I needed to drill (8) new 5/8 holes. I actually drill them to 21/32” which is the same size hole the factory used. I tried to rent a magnetic drill to make life easier but it wasn’t available so I used my trusty 1/2" 18V cordless Dewalt.

Once the holes were drilled I decided to make the spacers that needed to be welded to the top side of the C channel piece. Since my frame is 3/8” thick, I needed to turn (2) spaces of that thickness. These are used to keep the steering box flush against the frame after the original section is cut out. I started with the piece I had left over from making the throwout bearing spacer for the Cummins conversion in the 155W...



I started by turning the outside down to the right diameter but then used the mill to drill the center whole. My tail stock needs to be centered on my lathe so that’s why I used the mill...





Once they were done I welded them to the C channel...



More to follow...

[oldspwr]

At that point I decided set the C channel in place one more time. I also had a cracked Sheppard 592 box in my collection so I gutted it to help reduce the weight and bolted that in place as well. The box alone weighs 200lbs so it was much more manageable empty.



Now that the C channel was done I need to work on a few small items. The first item was a space for the fender bracket. The original fender bracket had (2) 1/4" spacers behind it. With the addition of the new C channel plus the half angle piece that bolts to the top, I need to make a 1/4" spacer that fit under the bottom half of the fender bracket...





Once that was done I moved onto the bumper bracket. For some reason, this bracket was much taller that the other ones I have seen and it would wind up hitting the upper half angle piece. Here is the bracket compared to a spare I have...



So I wound up trimming about an inch off of that piece...



More to follow...

[oldspwr]

The original bumper brackets also had 5/8” thick spacers behind them. My suspicion is that the front bumper came off of a 758 or 760 since the square holes in the bumper are slightly further apart than the 358 or 360 bumpers. I know on my Dad’s 361 we used a 761 bumper and wound up using 761 bumper mounts as well. So with the addition of 1/4" steel plate, I wound up make a new spacer out of 3/8” steel plate...



Once I was done making the spacers, etc, I gathered up all the pieces that needed to be painted...



I sandblasted them and then shot them outside with some extra Paint that Russ had given me. This is a busy pic but you get the idea...





That’s it for now!

[Second]

Thanks Tom! You do a wonderful job, both with the truck and presentation. Hope all is goodly up there.

[Huskiedrive2]

As always Tom, I am impressed with your abilities as a fabricator and the level of detail that you take every task to. Your work is second to none. When this conversion is done, Old Shepp will have factory power steering. No one will ever know it has been added.

[oldspwr]

Thanks for the comments guys... I haven't been working on this full time. I had to put a well in at my folks house and am working on that...

One I was done painting the parts I moved back to the frame. I decided to fill the holes for the Ross box. Using a 5/8” piece of rod, I cut pieces to fill each hole and welded them in place. Once they were welded in I ground the surface flush and then cleaned up with section I was working on...



Then I gave it a quick coat of self etching primer...



And finished off with some yellow Rustoleum I had. You really won’t see this section of frame anymore so any color would work, but I had some yellow left over from a street sweeper I rebuilt a few years back to clean the fairground for our ATCA truck show...



About a week later, I set the steering box in place using the cherry picker. I may have mentioned this before, but I took a 3/8” NPT pipe plug, drilled the center out and put an eyebolt through it. This is what I used to pick the box up and its perfectly balanced from this spot. I some cardboard and towels down on the frame as well...





At that point I gathered up the parts I had painted yellow a while back. The paint Russ gave me was enamel which was left over from when we painted the 18k front axle. It works pretty well but yellow is a tough color to paint. It seems like you need a number of coats to cover everything well. Otherwise it seems like you can see right through it in spots.



Then I started bolting things together and this is about as far as I got!



That’s it for now...

[Huskiedrive2]

Very good! I'll bet you're glad that the heavy work is done.

[quadbox]

Beautiful work as usual Tom.

[oldspwr]

Thanks for everyone's comments!!!

When we last left off I had just finished bolting some of the painted pieces on. One of the other big items I needed to tackle was the mounting bracket for the power steering reservoir. Since this truck has a new chrome Lubri-Finer on it, I decided to mount the reservoir under the hood, directly off the block just like our 761. So I took a hard look at our 761 and took some measurements and dimensions of the factory bracket. I also sketched up the piping diagram...



At first I wasn’t sure if our 761 had the correct factory bracket on it since it was definitely repaired a few times. But after talking to Richie, he confirmed it was exactly what the factory used. He also mentioned they were built a little too light and were often repaired. So at that point I decided to make mine one step heavier. I stopped at the local steel place and picked up all the pieces I needed, including some 2” angle, 10” wide flat stock and some 2” flat stock. But this time I used 3/16” instead of 1/8”...



I had bought a press brake a while back and never had a good opportunity to use it. So I decided to try it to bend the 10” 3/16” plate steel I bought. It actually worked pretty well...





Once I had cut the angle and bent the 10” plate, I cut and filed the bottom angles to fit...



And then welded them into place...



More to follow...