how important is power steering on the 350?

[dabear3428]

my 69 350 does not have it but my 350b does, it is possible/worth retrofitting?
i'm a big boy and so fare the lack of power steering has not bothered me but i have not used it that much.

[LeonardL]

It's not a necessity but does make the steering easier. However the system can be fiddly and problematic. The other issue would be finding all the parts. Probably salvage would be your best bet. If it was mine I wouldn't make the change. But that's just my opinion. If you enjoy dinking around with stuff then it would make a good project perhaps.

[Jason37756]

More trouble than what’s it’s worth in my opinion. A well adjusted steering clutch that doesn’t have excessive wear in the linkage can work quite nicely.

I’ve owned two crawlers with the power assist cylinders. One I spent money to redo the hoses and cylinders and it did work well, the other looked to be in good condition however it didn’t work well. If memory serves those power assist cylinders have their own linkage and pivot points that can also wear and lead to poor performance.

They are a neat feature that a crawler owner would enjoy. I enjoy digging in to a project and getting every feature to work, but I’ve also learned the value added formula and some things just don’t have the return on time and labor.

[bulletpruf]

Mine 67 350 doesn't have it, either, but it steers just fine without it, so I have zero interest in adding it. Just something else to break, in my opinion.

[Lavoy]

Retrofit is not really a likely deal unless you have a complete donor crawler of the same system type sitting there to rob it off of.
Not hard to rebuild, not really much to fix, and a great system. If it is worn out, it won't work correctly, but neither does a manual clutch that is worn out, no difference. And, the power steering system is still a manual system, it just has hydraulic assist.
Lavoy

[dabear3428]

thanks for the reply, to clarify i have a full doner mid 70s 350B, so i have the donor (i think) but was leaning toward the juice is not worth the squeeze.
thanks for the input