I’m putting a 1970 Coronet R/T (440-4, non-A/C) back to dead stock. One of the things the previous owner had done was to remove the power steering. Luckily, he gave me the correct (original) steering column and the gearbox. But he didn’t have the pump or brackets. I have found most of this stuff, all supposedly correct, but I can’t see how the pulley goes on the pump. The pulley has a keyway slot, but the pump does not. And, the pulley’s hole is a little too small to fit over the shaft. I’m told that there are several different arrangements. Which is right, and how do make this all work and be correct?
Yes, this is a can of worms, to be sure. First of all, in 1970, there were two different pumps in use by Chrysler, and, yes, both were used on big-block B-bodies. It’s an either/or deal. The first was referred to by Chrysler as the “threaded hole shaft” pump, we now refer to this by the vendor name: Federal (as in Federal-Mogul). The Fed can be identified by the round filler neck, the “tab” type, all- steel filler cap, and the pressure connection on top, next to the filler neck. You could always tell when these had oil in them, they left their mark on the pavement. The second one was called the “key slotted shaft” pump, this is now called the Saginaw pump. It has an oval filler neck, a smaller filler cap at least partially made of plastic, and a pressure connection on the rear of the pump. In your case, the shaft should be slotted for a woodruff key, and nut-retained pulley. But, it can get real complicated after that. First, pulleys used in smallblock installations had more offset than big block ones (see photos.) Even thought the pumps were little, if any different. The Saginaw changed significantly in the 1976-’77 era. The shaft diameter went from 5/8˝ to 3/4˝, and the pulley was now press- on. At a glance, they looked just like the ’67-’75 pump. Probably, this is the pump you have. Then, there was the later “metric” Saginaw pump, introduced in 1980. It can be recognized by the fact that there’s a very short filler tube, the cap basically screws right on to the reservoir. It uses a press-on pulley. Aside from the metric mounting hardware and pressure fitting, it’s inter- changeable with the early pumps. If you want to make this car 100-point correct, you need to find a correct slotted/nutted Saginaw pump. These aren’t too hard to find, most of the rebuilders offer them. Then, you can use your hopefully- correct pulley (Mopar P/N 29851203—see photo above for I.D. info.) If you don’t have the correct pulley, Bouchillon Peformance in Hanrahan, SC (843-744-6559, www.bouch- illonperformance.com), offers an exact reproduction. Their stock number is BPE9016. Bouchillon, who helped us research this, also offers something really trick—a pulley that, even when scrutinized pretty closely, looks like dead-stock, but actually presses on to the later Saginaw pumps and has the correct offset for the popular (and easy) ’67-’72 big-block non- A/C WP housing/alternator/pulley setups. So you could just order Bouchillon’s P/N BPE9017, and use the pump you’ve already got. Sharp eyed readers no doubt have added two plus two. Yes, this means you could use a brand-new, zero-problems Saginaw pump on your ’70 if you wish (although this would take it out of the resto category). All that would be needed are a few metric bolts to mount it, and either swapping the regulator valve in the rear so you could retain your original hose, or an ’80s pressure hose (Diplomat, etc.). See photos/captions for more details on this. Bouchillon also offers all the other pulleys (crankshaft, water pump, etc.) and brackets for this installation if you need them.
