salans7 Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 Jim beat me to it. But I would have said the bracket is cast aluminum, so I'm sure I'd have been wrong as it doesn't quite feel like aluminum. However, I didn't know what zamak is, so looked it up in Wikipedia: "Zamak alloys are part of the zinc aluminium alloy family; they are distinguished from the other ZA alloys because of their constant 4% aluminium composition. The name zamak is an acronym of the German names for the metals of which the alloys are composed: Zink (zinc), Aluminium, Magnesium and Kupfer (copper)." I was tempted to powder coat the parts for you, Jeremy, but for two things - color and the belief that the bracket is aluminum. On the color, I'd have done them in black and that might not be your choice, particularly since the bracket looks pretty good raw. But the aluminum was the killer - cast aluminum, and probably zamak as well, is fairly "porous" and gets impurities down into the "pores". So when you heat the part up in the oven to 425F the impurities burn off and blow the powder off, leaving holes in the finish. The solution is to wash the part very well with brake cleaner, heat it to 400F for an hour, then wash it again with brake cleaner and preheat the part before applying the powder. And that is very time consuming. As it turned out I didn't have the time to do all of that yesterday. Instead I spent that time "making" a box, meaning cutting an existing box down to size. I'll bet I saved at least a dollar vs using a USPS flat rate box. Didn't see any clear photos of the power steering bracketry for a 1983-1987 460 assembled but without the accessories, so I'll throw these in for future reference if needed, even though they aren't the best. For the record, the power steering pump bracket I have also says D8AC-3A732-AA. Mine came from a 1986 F250 with a 5.0 302, so it appears this bracket was used on most if not all of the gas V8's, at least in the later years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 Didn't see any clear photos of the power steering bracketry for a 1983-1987 460 assembled but without the accessories, so I'll throw these in for future reference if needed, even though they aren't the best. For the record, the power steering pump bracket I have also says D8AC-3A732-AA. Mine came from a 1986 F250 with a 5.0 302, so it appears this bracket was used on most if not all of the gas V8's, at least in the later years. Good to know, Shaun. Thanks! (Things like this are why we MUST take all of our history over to the new platform.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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