Took my 1968 fastback out for an almost two hour cruise this morning. As I'm nearing home I get a loud squealing noise and the power steering is gone. I pull cautiously to the shoulder and take a look. Pop the hood, engine bay looks fine, power steering belt is in place, drop to the ground behind the left front tire and I see that the power steering ram has pulled out of the frame/unibody. As you already know the attachment of the ram has two expansion bolts, both those bolts are still attached to the ram. How do I remedy this? I can't put a nut on the back side which is the reason for the expansion bolts. I know someone here has experienced this before and I hope you may have some good suggestions.

TIA,
Brian

 

I put the car up on ramps and found the through bolt sheared off, just need to find a stronger bolt assembly. Luckily it appears to be a straight forward fix.

Brian

 

Awesome, let us know how it goes.

 

Bought a Grade 8 replacement, everything is back together and working good.
Brian

 

Nice! I have a question though. Would it actually be convenient to go with a weaker bolt to keep that spot the failure point instead of somewhere else in the system? Just my thought. It's nicer when something cheap fails instead of something more complex or expensive.
But I'm glad its back together and working well.

 

Bigcee67,

Thanks for making me think about the bolt strength like you mentioned. What is odd how my bolt broke is that it did so laterally and not vertically (sheared). Since the bolt is the only real connection point I think I'm going to stay with the stronger bolt. Hoping it doesn't back fire on me.

Thank again for your thoughts/input!
Brian

 

Sounds good! And I did assume a shear. Laterally is kinda odd. Ah well, happy trails!