QuestionDo you provide or know of some one that can provide a power steering unit for a 1949 Packard. Have had the car for at least 15 years and it has always been hard to turn the steering wheel. There was no power steering for those models but wonder if some one has come up with a unit or some way to modify the gear box to ease with the turning. I just I am getting older, like the car but don't enjoy driving it any more as it is so hard to turn.
Thanks for your time----Rich
AnswerHello Richard,
There are many people interested in this conversion for the same reasons you are! We want to keep driving our cars but a few modern conveniences would be nice.
Researching the topic with the Packard club, a few folks have done the conversion with the 50's cars but not your earlier series. And even for people swapping mid-50's Packard P/S into non-P/S cars find they have to do a lot of engineering and modification to make the swap work correctly. For example, the differences between a 1954 P/S and Non P/S Packards range from different steering box ratios, changed steering radius and different tie rods and other steering components!
Just to elaborate a bit on my prior point about PS not being purely an "add-on" and using 1954 as an example, the 5400 and 5401 chassis had a steering box with 20.03/1 ratio for standard steering, and 18.2/1 for power steering. For the senior models the numbers were 22.3 and 18.6 respectively. Turning circles were also smaller for the PS-equipped cars by about 1 foot, indicating some other change in front end geometry. This isn't to say you can't just add the PS components, it just says the result won't be the same as for a original PS-equipped car.
Consider the following posts on the issues and possible solutions. One of the recommendations I heartily agree with: make sure your current steering system is working top notch. Consider changing tire construction and front end alignment settings to ease existing steering. Do all these things first as they're the lowest cost and could bring enough relief to make conversion unnecessary. Still not enough? Then consider a modern, electric P/S system as anything you do will be unoriginal anyway plus the modern components are smaller and may actually be easier to engineer into your car than trying to convert an early-50's system to work.
Good luck--keep 'em driving!
Bob
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You may be surprised how easy your car is to steer without power steering if everything is up to factory specs.
Have the front end checked over and replace worn parts. Then have an alignment done.
It should steer and drive very easily as long as the car is moving. For parking it will require a little muscle.
But back when the car was new ladies and chicken muscled tycoons drove them so they couldn't be too hard to steer.
There may be another reason for hard steering, radial tires.
Today's radials are draggier than bias plies. But there is a way around that too.
If the steering is set up to factory specs and it still steers too hard there is another improvement that can be made.
Have the front end man set up the front end with little or no caster. This will make steering easier.
If you do this you have to add a steering damper to control shimmy. Steering dampers are a standard accessory used on a lot of Jeep type vehicles, not expensive or hard to install, they just clamp on.
German cars have been set up this way for years, with low caster and steering dampers. It makes the steering easy and accurate without power steering.
Try this before you add power steering. You should at least have the front end checked and brought up to factory specs and aligned even if you do add power steering. So the effort won't be wasted and it might save you some work and some money.
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