Buick 455 A.I.R./PS Bracket Information

Text and Photos By Warren Dennis

If you have a 72 GS 455 it probably came with an A.I.R. (Air Injector Reactor) system installed. Because of the A.I.R. pump your car would have a ram air cleaner with a triangle shaped inlet on the driver's side and different power steering brackets that allow mounting the A.I.R. pump. Like a lot of parts for our cars, the "A" body brackets are different than those from the full size "BCE" cars and do not always interchange.
Below is the complete setup for our "A" body cars positioned the way it would be installed in the car. Power steering pump mounts in the lower position and A.I.R. pump in the upper position.

Below is the A.I.R. pump adjusting arm and Power Steering adjusting bracket. A.I.R. arm does not have any stampings or numbers and can be identified by the mounting holes which are 5" center to center. The PS bracket is part number 1238314 and is stamped 455-A 350

Below is the PS pump and A.I.R. pump mount. For the "A" body it is cast aluminum, part number 1238313. Also cast 455-A 350

Last item is the pulley to drive the A.I.R. pump. This is a add-on pulley that stacks on top of the water pump pulley to drive the pump. Stamped 1238511 "FRONT". This seems to be the same for all cars.

For comparison, the big car "BCE" setup does not interchange with the "A" Body.

Both the PS adjusting bracket and A.I.R pump/PS pump mount bracket are stamped "455 BCE".

The A.I.R. adjusting arm does not have any stamping and measures 6 ½ inches center to center on the mounting holes. Compare this to the "A" body arm above that measures 5 inches.
The BCE bracket also mounts the A.I.R. pump about 1 inch higher above the PS pump then the aluminum "A" body bracket so it may cause clearance issues with the air cleaner and hood.

Below is the complete package installed on my 72 GS 455.

Page from the 72 Service Manual showing how the brackets are installed and torque values.