I’m nearing the end of my engine swap project, and am at the point where I am putting all the hoses and lines back together, and I seem to have a weird situation with my power steering pressure hose placement. Since it’s long, it travels a fair amount with the turning of the wheels, and I find it is getting dangerously close to exhaust manifold, or wants to bind up and loosen itself where it connects to the control valve.
I did a little light research and discovered that it looks like there was a hose bracket that kept the pressure hose and return line in place, that I’m assuming attached to the side of the engine bay. Needless to say, my engine bay is far from original, and I’m guessing a previous owner removed said bracket to make room for the horrendous long tube headers that used to be installed on the car. Those headers are gone, and I’d like to get things back to how they were from the factory, and ideally not melt the hell out of my lines as they move with the steering. I found these two different brackets:
My car is a '68. Does anyone know if either of these two options are correct for that year, and if so, how does it mount? The only factory looking hole I can see that would be remotely close to where I would assume a bracket would mount is on the shock tower, closer to the top.
If anyone has a picture or something of what it is supposed to look like, that would be greatly appreciated.
Here is the little I know. There are 2 brackets. One for the small block which has the appropriate hoses and there is one for the big block 390 with the appropriate hoses. IT mounts down at the lower control pivot saddle. The books show it pretty well.
I know this because I have the long tubes and had to use the 390 BB hoses on the 289 SB I have installed.
Check out the pictures at http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/67smlblkcmpltpsthskt.html?attribs=76
It shows the routing. Although the small block and big block have different routings the big block is better and keeps the hoses away from the header or exhaust manifold, if you are not worried about original looks.
I found that you can reuse the small block bracket and reroute the hose similar to the big block and it moves the hoses to a safe distance.
Ahh I see, yeah that does seem like a much better routing compared to up next to the manifold. I’m not worried so much about originality (too much of the original car has been changed over the years) so at this point I’ll use whatever part works best to increase functionality. I have neither bracket at the moment, so I guess my next question is does the small block bracket also mount down by the control arm as well? I can’t seem to find any pictures of the small block bracket mounted on the car, and my only reference for where the small block lines go is where the previous owner had them routed on my car (straight up from the control valve and up by the headers).
I’m assuming the 289 SB hoses didn’t match well with the 390 BB bracket route? While the return hose for both seem to be around the same length, it looks like the pressure hose for the 289/302 is considerably longer than the two-piece hose used for the 390, most likely making the SB hose too long to comfortably fit that route without binding up. Is that what you found?
“I’m assuming the 289 SB hoses didn’t match well with the 390 BB bracket route? While the return hose for both seem to be around the same length, it looks like the pressure hose for the 289/302 is considerably longer than the two-piece hose used for the 390, most likely making the SB hose too long to comfortably fit that route without binding up. Is that what you found?”
It was more of the routing to make sure it stayed away from the header that drove me in this direction. The pressure hose is the one that got real close to the header when using the SB. The SB hose is the one that is not long enough to take the BB routing.
Yeah, that’s what I’m leaning toward also. I did find where the original '68 bracket was supposed to mount, allowing the pressure hose to make a large loop before attaching to the pump. It looks like by '69 they had the power steering lines for all the engine options take the lower route. The Ford engineers must have realized staying away from the exhaust was the safer way to go
Not only did I have concerns with the exhaust, but when I first got the car I had to replace the pressure hose due to it rubbing up against the frame in one spot and wearing a hole in it, and having the connection to the valve periodically loosen with the turning of the wheel. This was probably helped along by the fact that there was no bracket at all. I did find some info saying that a few hose clamps securing the hoses to the valve keep them tight and help prevent stress on the connections and thus lower the risk of them loosening with normal driving, in case anyone else has had that issue.
So anyway, I’ve ordered the big block hoses and bracket to take the lower path and hopefully fully avoid any other hose related issues in the future. Thanks for all the help everyone!
