The Joy of Putting on a 605 Steering Gearbox on a 57 Chevy.
Text and photos by Alan

I am a very average guy with very average automotive skills. I am not going to give you tech. tips or write an installation manual for the 605. I have written in vague terms because I am no expert, as you will see in my article, and don�t want to steer the reader in the wrong direction. With very little effort you can go on the Internet for complete instructions or call one of the major old Chevy catalogue suppliers and they will send you a set of instructions.

My 1957 Chevy 150

I bought a 57 Chevy because I love that year and it is a car I can understand. I look under the hood of today�s new cars and I can barely pick out the engine not alone work on it. One good thing about today�s cars is that you don�t have to work on them as much as the old cars. That�s bad because half of the fun of owing a car is getting to work on it, boy it has to be because you get to have that joy all the time owning a classic like mine.

Living in Dallas and driving my non-power steering 57 was a real chore. Even parking in my garage would ware me out thus taking the joy out of cruising the old 57. Thus, I got the wild idea to put power steering in my car. I really want to put in AC but the floor has so many holes fixed with sheet metal and pop rivets I am afraid I will asphyxiate myself. I�m in education so I can�t do all the things I want like right now. I have to go on the payment plan, fix and pay as you go.

You can go a couple of ways when starting a restoration project. You could put original parts from 57 in your car or you could use newer parts such as a Chevy 605-steering gearbox conversion. I chose the latter.

Again there is two ways to go. The cheep way, build your own or the smarter way of buying new parts. Since I am cheep and proud of it I always choose to build it myself.

I started by going to the Internet for research. I read several people had put 605 steering gear boxes in their cars. But what is a 605? Where do you find such an animal? My research told me that the Chevy 605 steering gear box is a smaller standard steering gear box Chevy made for passenger cars. It is distinguished by the fact that the top of the steering box has the cap held down by snap rings unlike its larger cousin the 808 that has the top is bolted on. I went to the pick a part and saw one on an 83 Camaro. Now knowing what they looked like I searched and found a 605 steering gear box in our parts department or should I say junk pile in the auto shop at school.

With my tools and naive ambition in hand I started turning wrenches. First you have to remove the steering column. This is relatively simple procedure. I must suggest bagging and labeling all parts you take off of your car. I would go so far to also recommend you take photographs of each step. I thought I could complete the whole conversion in a couple weeks but it ended up taking 5 months. I told you I was just average. If I had not labeled the parts I would have never remembered where they all went. I also wished I had taken more photographs to remember where and how every thing went when putting it back together. Why is it that you always have bolts and screws left over? Scary.

Getting at the steering gear

Now the real fun starts with the removal of the old steering box. First you have to take off the pitman arm. Well it has a big nut on it, I don�t mean me, and I had to buy a new socket to remove it. You have to use a pitman arm puller to slide off the arm from the shaft. Problem number one, my headers are in the way. Solution, remove the header. I lucked out and all the header bolts came out without breaking. Finally I got the old steering box off and was ready to start building the 605 box with parts from my old steering box.

I had a power steering pump that was given to me by a friend. It looked good after I spent an hour cleaning all the grease and grime off of it. It came with a factory bracket that I thought I could use saving a few bucks. Well, I spend about 20 hours trying to fabricate this bracket to work and finally had to trash the whole thing. I ordered a bracket from a supplier.

I didn�t like where the return hosepipe was on the pump. I decided to do some customizing and ripped a hole in the reservoir tank. Not to be deterred I slapped some liquid steel over the hole and kept going.

605 gearbox after conversion ready for shaft extension

The first thing you will notice is that the bottom of the old steering box is 4 � inches longer than the 605. The 57 steering gear is mounted behind the cross member, where as the car the 605 came off of is mounted at front of t he cross member therefore, the 605 steering gear box shaft to the pitman arm has to be made longer to work the control arms on the 57. To fix this problem you take the old pitman arm shaft from the 57 gear box, cut and grind 2 gear teeth off the shaft, grind the top down 1/8 of an inch to make it shorter, throw away a washer and use your old adjusting bolt and it�s all most converted. You will notice that the shaft sticks out 4 � inches out the bottom gearbox. To fix this problem you cut off 4 1/2 inches off the bottom of your old box, use a bushing form the old box for a seal and you are done.

To get the new 605 steering box mounts on the frame I made and then welded to the frame an angled piece of metal to bolt on the box.

Mounting bracket with 605 attached

You need to attach a rag joint to the steering shaft or your new 605 will make such a racket you will not be able to drive the car.

Now you get to attach the hoses from the steering box to the pump. I custom bent the metal parts of the hoses to make it work. To keep the metal pipe from crimping I filled it with strands of bailing wire to give the inside some strength. It worked somewhat.

Cutting steering column size

Now, even scarier you get to cut your steering shaft and column in pieces. Since the 605 is larger than the 57 gearbox you have to shorten the steering shaft and column to 31 � inches. The shaft I just cut off the old box to length. The column has to be cut in the middle. I really worried about this procedure. You have to be careful that the boltholes for the inside steering column clamp to line up. It would be easier to just cut the end off the steering column but you have to keep the end intact for the shifting arms. I have a 4 speed and didn�t have to worry about the shifting arms but you must do some bending and custom building to get them to fit. There is not much room between the firewall and the end of the rag joint.

To get easy access to all this work I took off the fender. It was really rusted on the inside and I sandblasted all the different parts and repainted them. I hate sand blasting, enough said.

I put the fender back on. Fired that mother up and went for a test drive. Guess what it works. I am ecstatic.

I went to my first car show of the year and when I�m there I notice a puddle of oil under my car. Whoops! The pump is leaking! I find out that my hole-fixing job is not holding. So, I bite the bullet and went to the parts store and bought a pump for a 64 Chevy truck. I Slapped that baby on, start her up and another puddle of oil is now forming under my car.

The new pump works so good that every gasket in the 605 is now leaking. Back the parts store I go and buy a rebuild kit for the 605. To make this fix I have to take the fender off again. Pull the gearbox off and install new gaskets. Put it back on. Put the fender back on. I go for a drive.

The fan is wobbling all over the place. To get to fix it I have to take off the radiator off. Geese! I didn�t tighten the bolts. Bolts tightened and the radiator back in place I test drive again. I don�t get around the block when smoke comes from under the hood so bad I looked like a funny car after a 1/8-mile burn out. To top it off I loose all power steering. But, on the bright side all the power steering fluid is gone by the time I get home and I am spared the embarrassment of a smoking car as I drive in my garage.

During inspection I notice the whole top of my 605 gearbox had broken off. Well, that was it, I sent off for a complete 605 steering gear box from a warehouse. Took off the fender, again! Had to cut the holding bracket offto be able to bolt on the new box. To get the new box on I had to take the header off, again! This time I got smart and tested the new gearbox with the fender still off. Seems to be working? Slapped it all together, again, and took her for a test drive. This time everything seems to be OK. Not really I had to bend the clutch arm and grind off part of the steering box bracket to keep the cluch arm from hitting and sticking on the new bracket but I don't count that.

With my cheapness I got to do three times the work. Like I have said, �Working on an old car is half the fun, it has to be.�

I plan to redo the front of my Chevy with with new springs, shocks and bushings. This should be a blast.

I am looking for past owners of my Chevy. If you know any history about her please leave a message in my guest book.

One man hood installer. Note: You do not have to take the hood off to take off a fender. Whoops!