Power steering system

[Brian Kulis]

On my 1972, just curious. What is the purpose of the longer power steering hoses on my 1972 302-2V? I have the year where the power steering hoses go up and over the top of the shock tower braces. Many of the other years and engines do not do this.

 

[Doug The Dog]

It is for cooling purposes. A lot of Mustangs came without the PS cooler and had the longer hose. I know mine did.

 

[Mesozoic]

I'm just putting mine back together after injecting it and I realized that my car used to have this power steering fluid cooler, but no longer does. Is it absolutely necessary? BTW, if you're running a 302 you can easily swap in the late model 5.0L accessories and run serpentine... one of the better mods I made a while back.

 

[Spike Morelli]

I was told  some years ago, by a long standing repair shop owner, that , according to him, the long hose looped in the power steering system is done to quiet the pump. How, and why, I don't know, and I don't know where he got this information. Maybe an old Ford service tech would be able to shed some light on this. I wonder if anything is in the shop manual about that hose? When I bought my Mach 1 , many years back, the PS cooler was gone as well, but I bought one from a local Mustang specialty shop and put it back on. Perhaps the engineers at Ford know more than the mechanic who removed it . There's usually good reasons for all of this stuff, or the Factory wouldn't design it as such.