So Frustrated (subtitle: a Madera like afternoon)

["Chris and Ranae Procyk" <procyk19@domain.elided>]

Well, of the billion things around the place that need almost immediate
attention it was pretty much agreed that putting power steering in the
Travellette was #1.  That's a deviation from normal policy- repairs of
things that have degraded is usually paramount.

But wrestling a 7000lb truck around gets pretty old.

We had already broken the project down- I had put the extra pulleys on the
motor quite a while ago and we had pulled the box off the '68 Travelall at
that brief interlude after the cold, wet snow and before the wasps moved
back in.  All measurements had come out pretty promising- both Saginaw boxes
seemed to have the same mounting hole pattern (except the un-assisted box
only had 3 holes) and the relationship between the mounting quadrangle and
the attachment point to the steering shaft seemed the same.  The three holes
didn't matter, as the ps box only used three of the four holes anyway.  My
measurements were re-inforced by the fact that the un-assisted box (I'm
trying not to call it a "manual" box, but I should probably give up) had
quite a large amount of raw shaft protruding out of the box- implying that
Saginaw was deliberately trying to match the two up.

The only weird thing, at first, was that the ps box used two holes at the
front and one at the back whereas the ua box was the opposite.

Hmmm.  So to condense the next hour or so, I took the cast bracket out of
the TE and tried to bolt the PS pump onto it.  The holes did match up- but
the casting interfered with the fit and I couldn't bolt it down tightly.

OK, fight the wasps for the TA bracket.  Carry my 3/4 inch tools all the way
back to the truck.  They're too big.  Well, there is plenty of meat to drill
"up" the hole sizes, but if the bolts are different that maybe the pattern
is too.  But it sure looks the same (imagine a rain gutter in cross-section,
a bolt hole at each corner).

Only one way to find out.  So I take it off.  And try it on the TE.  Well,
the front two holes match up but the rear don't.

Question #1: Can I drill the other two holes?
Ans: Well, one hole would be fine, but the other overlaps with the original.
Don't like that.

Question #2: Do I really even want to drill the frame?
Ans:  Sounds like the type of thing that we all b*itch at PO's about.

Question #3: Can I / should I grind out the TE's ua bracket?
Ans: Looks possible.

Well, maybe it is, but as I ground enough casting down to make me nervous
(and still not quite enough) I noticed that another part of the casting was
interfering with something else.  I guess I could grind it too...

Question #4: Does this make sense?
Ans: No, get the right bracket and do the job the way it's supposed to be
done.

So (sigh), I put the ua box back on the truck and tried not to think about
the other things (the flapping bed sides, the lack of a tailgate, the
basement shower enclosure, the porch's need for another coat of sealer, an
about 2 doz. other things) that I could have done instead.

Well, at least it will go really quickly when I do get the right bracket.  I
was smart enough to make a tracing of the mounting pattern.  Two things that
honk me off:

#1) You might think that the problem was the 1/2 ton doesn't have as deep a
frame as the 3/4, but the brackets encompass the same height and length,
they just have a different pattern for no discernable reason.

#2) You would think that a company whose managers were always moaning (and
the figures certainly support their position) about a lack of development
money would have designed one casting that would fit both boxes.  It seems
clear to me that that was what Saginaw had in mind.

In Use: 70 1210 4x4 166" wb TE w/out ps, 73 1210 WM
Project (2nd time) 67 1000B PU
Parts: 67 1000B TA   68 1100 4x4 TA  72 1010 TA