Thread: 1968 Plymouth Valiant 1st Gen HEMI

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The Valiants were available with PS, but the steering box is physically larger than the manual boxes. Swapping in a Big Block (like the car had when I bought it) or a HEMI usually makes it impossible to use the PS box. The manual steering boxes with the 24:1 ratio really isn't too bad to drive even with a BB or HEMI so most guys live with that or even the quicker 16:1 "firm Feel" boxes. When you do a swap like that it normally puts the car in the not driven very often toy category anyway.

I had researched electric PS for the 57 Plymouth a few years ago and probably would have gone with that except having a 4 speed the clutch and brake pedals prevented having any room for the electric motor. In the case of Plymouth’s factory PS units, while bolt in, they are hard to find, expensive and usually needed rebuilt (anywhere between $300-$700 range to have then rebuilt). The biggest complaint I had about the factory PS was the horrible road feel they had which was why I originally built the car with manual steering.

On the Plymouth I went with a conversion hydraulic PS that used a later steering box. The kit included a rebuilt steering gear, adapter plate hoses etc, basically everything except the PS pump, brackets for the pump and pulleys (I’d done a HEMI swap so those weren’t available). The kit cost about $1100 and required steering column modifications.

The electric PS cost about $1300, but eliminates the need for a PS gear, pump, brackets and pulleys. In the end cost is actually a bit cheaper than a lot of non-factory PS conversions. Column modifications are necessary, but relatively speaking are simpler than a lot of the conversions.

Too be perfectly honest a big selling point for me was I’ve never done an electric PS conversion and wanted to see how easy/hard it is.

Sorry for the long winded reply, but after yesterday my back’s killing me and I have too much time to sit at the keyboard



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