Adding Power Steering to an '80-'85 Toyota Pickup

Parts needed:

1. Power steering gearbox - Bolts to the frame
2. Power steering pump - Bolts to the engine
3. Fluid reservoir - Bolts to the inner fender
4. Bolts to hold the reservoir onto the fender - with Nyloc nuts
5. All of the hoses including the cooler that bolts behind the grill
6. If possible obtain all of the bolts - it makes life much easier
7. Pulley that bolts to the crank with 4 bolts
8. Idler pulley
9. Power steering belt

Adding power steering is a pretty straight-forward conversion.

1. Begin by disconnecting the manual steering gearbox at both the pitman arm, and the shaft that comes off of the steering wheel. Then remove the 4 bolts that attach the gear box to the frame.



2. Position the new power steering gear box onto the frame and tighten the bolts. With this done, re-attach the pitman arm to the drag link. It is important to then turn the front wheels straight so that you can be sure the steering shaft is oriented correctly. If attention is not paid to this, you may end up with your steering wheel 90 degrees off!!



3. Bolt the crankshaft pulley to the existing pulley with the 4 bolts. Be sure that the bolts do not bottom out in their holes before the pulley is tight. The bolts that I was given bottomed out without me realizing it. I spent an hour or two trying to locate the "wierd" noise that it caused.



4. Bolt the pump onto the driver's side of the engine. The bracket that the pump mounts to (you should have gotten it with the pump from the junkyard) should also have an idler pulley. The idler pulley is pretty expensive, so be sure to get one from the junkyard.



5. Position the reservoir on the driver's side inner fender and mark the hole location. The place where the reservoir should mount has flat spots stamped into the fender. Proceed to drill the holes for whatever bolt you bought. You will not have what you need from the junkyard on this one because the stock mount has nuts welded to the back of the fender. I used 3/8" bolts with Nylok nuts so that they would not vibrate loose.



6. Connect all of the hoses. One problem that I had on mine was that I noticed the pump had 2 vacuum hoses coming off of it. I did not know where they went or where they had come from, so I looped them together. I asked everyone I met that had a Toyota if I could see their power steering so that I might be able to determine where these hoses went. I finally found out that I had an EFI power steering pump in a carburated engine. The vacuum lines were not critical, and looping them together was the correct thing to do because it kept the dirt out.



7. Install the belt and tighten using the adjustment screw on the idler pulley.



8. Fill the reservoir with fluid and start the engine.



9. Work the steering wheel back and forth with the engine running to get the fluid into the system. Repeat this until the fluid level is where it should be.