Power steering and brakes

[ZGjethro]

Over the holiday weekend, I talked trucks with the only other M37 owner I have met. He is a guy from Texas who had his truck shipped out to Colorado a few years ago. I looked under his truck's hood and saw a power steering pump. He said he had the Snake River 4x4 conversion in place. Has anyone here done that conversion? From their site, it looks pretty simple to do, with only minimal welding required. I'd love to do that so my wife could drive the truck.

He also had a box in the bed for power brakes, using the factory drums. Not the usual vacuum system on the master cylinder. How would this work? Hydrovac? He had the left side of the bed in front of the wheel well boxed off, which was kind of unsightly

[Cal_Gary]

You need to PM Tom@Snake River... He's one of our forum mates.
Gary

[straight-shot]

Did the power steering conversion on my 51 M about a year and a half ago. One of the best things I've done on the truck to date. Used the Snake River parts. Tom was a great help! I recommend it! Used a bolted on bracket I made instead of welding one on, didn't have a welder at the time, it has held up quite well. Purchased the power steering box and pump locally, everything else came from Snake River.

[T. Highway]

I have bought several things from Tom and he was great to work with.

Bert

[Kaegi]

hydrovac works great! there is room to mount it on the frame under the truck. no need to install in bed It was an option on Civilian Dodge Power Wagons and other civilian dodges, fords, IH, GM, studebaker and is still used in the medium duty truck world on some foreign stuff. hydrovac is the least expensive way to do a face plant on to the steering wheel when you apply the brake pedal.

[greeno]

Is there any good write ups on putting a hydrovac on an M37 or similar? I'm very interested.

[Kaegi]

not that I recall but searching the dodgepowerwagon.com site, the power wagon advertiser site, and this site might yield some results and info. its fairly simple: install to inside of frame under bed, run output brake line from master cylinder to hydrovac, then run the brake line out of hydrovac to junction block that splits off to the front and rear brakes. you can leave the stock junction block in place or move it closer to the hydrovac. usually they just run the output line to the stock junction block. then run a vacuum hose from manifold to hydrovac and y our done. you only need a 7 inch unit for these trucks. a 9 inch might be a bit too much unless you are always hauling gravel in bed and a trailer.