Steering setup

[tmudie]

Hi All,

sorry for all the questions but this is my first modification....FC to red/trimatic

do I need more radiator capacity? I want power steering and air cond, will the std radiator do the job, or do I need to upgrade, recore, bigger fan etc??

I want to (as much as possible) preserve the original loo of the wagon, both inside out out. tThe mechanical upgrade is to make it a better/safer everyday driver.

With the trimatic I was planning to put in a EH steering column with the auto selector on the stalk and hopefully find a factory power steering unit to match (EH or HR). Any known problems with this?

will the EH selector work well (without major mods) with the trimatic?

can I fit a FC steering wheel to the EH column, or at least a FB or EK

Thanks

Tony

[gree]

i know for a fact that you can't put an fc wheel on an eh colun or visa versa. i tried to put an eh wheel on my ek column when my fc wheel was being pearled. different setup. i have an ek steering column in my fc which is much shorter than the huge fc one, and i have an ek wheel as well. the fc and ek wheels are interchangable, but i think the eh column would only take eh hr wheels. i think though that they steering mechanism itself is pretty much the same on any of these columns.

[RET]

I want to (as much as possible) preserve the original loo of the wagon, both inside out out.

Not another member of the Poo Club

Tony,

I've got 186 + powerglide auto in my car, so I guess I've done pretty much what you have in mind.  As far as the original radiator is concerned, you need to consider the transmission oil-cooler.  Now I'm running a grey radiator (a fairly new one), with an external cooler mounted inside the grille more or less opposite the horn.  It used to be fixed to the front of the old radiator, and that unit blew out the top tank eventually.  It used to run warmer than I would have liked, and was a bitch if you were doing a lot of little trips on a hot day - you know, stop somewhere for 5 minutes, drive for 15 minutes, stop the car again for 5 minutes, that sort of thing.

Anyway, I have a new heavy-duty (middle of the range, there was also an extra-heavy duty option) radiator with an over-flow tank, and it runs at 85deg most of the time now, which is fine.

If you put in an EH/HR radiator, you need to trim the panels either side of the radiator to make it fit (since it's significantly wider than the FC one), but you do get much greater capacity, and the option to have your transmission cooler mounted internally in the radiator.  I considered this when changing my radiator about 8 months ago, but my mechanic recommended I keep the external unit, which are supposedly more efficient than the ones that run through the bottom tank of the radiator.

I'm running on a bit here.  Maybe if you could make it along to the meeting next week (Tues Jan 14) you could have a look at a couple of red-motor conversions and see what else has to be done, and take a few pictures etc.

Hope that is some help,
RET

[fcfromscratch]

Tony,

like RET, I'm putting 186/Powerglide in my FC.  Have the HR front xmember, discs.

I am going to use a HR steer column which has the correct gate, correct quadrant, right gear control arm travel, neutral safety switch etc etc already built in.  Was going to go Ken's way of using a Hydramatic column and change the gate, re jig the neutral safety, the quadrant etc...but the HR option seemed easier.  Bought a HR donor car for the engine, box, steering column, rims, foot pedal etc etc...

HR steer box has only two lower mounting bolts that align with two of the same holes the FC box uses.  May need some shimming to get true alignment.  Connects straight to HR pitman arm and the rest of the steering gear.  HR Box has a higher ratio (16.8:1 vs 14:1 for FE/FC) so should be less effort to steer

Can't use FC steering wheel  ...but them's the breaks...

Other issue is the brackets for the gear shift rod that goes under the box (RH to LH, particular to Powerglide)...one is mounted on the box, the other is on the RH "Y" frame...need to transfer that to FC "Y" subframe....

Also have HR rear axle to accomodate HR rear drums with corresponding rear slave cyl's for front discs.  A friend of mine has a similar setup with HR front discs and has no power assist...still stops fine and was registered OK by WA examiners....so I'm going without the power assist for starters....

Should be together very soon, will post pics...

My current plan is to go standard radiator and use thermatic fan on grille side of radiator, also separate small cooler for trans oil....mounted behind grille as RET suggests...

regards....Brad

[Chuck]

Tony

I know that this an old topic, but I thought I could add a little bit.  When I built my last FC, which is now grees and is a bit worse for wear, I used a HR steering box to take advantage of the lighter steering.  To enable me to use the EK wheel that is on the car now, I removed the EK honey pot (what I call the bulge at the top of the column) and fitted this to the HR column.  This was fairly easy to do and only required the drilling of 3 holes to suit the honey pot.  The whole job only took about half an hour and it looks like it came from the factory like that.  I'm reasonably sure that the EK and FC columns are the same diameter so it should be just as easy to do.

Cheers

Chuck

[mcl1959]

Hi Tony, good luck with the conversion - I have red and Trimatic exactly as you wish to do.
I agree with most of what has been said above, but would like to add the following.
I've just had my car engineered and the following are the rules in Vic.  (may or may not apply in other states - but best check with your engineer BEFORE you spend countless hours on a conversion)
HR steering column is illegal because it is not collapsible - if you upgrade the column it must meet current ADR's
If you are going with Air con and power steer I would recommend a bigger radiator or a Aussie Desert Coolers FC unit suitable for bigger engines.
Trimatic is way different to Powerglide since it has 3 forward speeds instead of 2, and Reverse is in a different position on the quadrant.
This is a major problem for early columns so somewhat limits using an EK or HR auto column.

This is why I did what I did with my car

I used an FC steering box to get around the ADR rule, took out the column and shaft and replaced them with EH items as tyhese are shorter.  Hand built the quadrant and lockout from HR items and customised a Torana N/S switch.

I used a sports wheel as I didn't want to run an EH wheel.

Hope this helps

Ken