Commando Front Axle/steering Swap

My '66 Commando has a manual steering box and a stock 3.73 Dana 27AF front end. I'm looking to swap it to power steering and to a narrow dana 30 with discs. What are my best options? I have the power steering box and bracket out of a '73 commando, but I don't think it'll just bolt up like I was told. Thanks

 

If you have everything from the steering wheel to the steering box (from the '73 Commando), then it would be fairly straigh-forward on swapping. Without the column, shafts, and everything else, there going to be a lot of work.
-Donny

 

If you can post up a picture of the Commando steering parts that you have alone with a picture of the current steering we can see in greater detail what you are dealing with. I did this conversion a couple of years ago and with the correct parts it wasn't too difficult, lets see what you got to work with.
Not the best picture but here is how mine turned out.

 

Here's a few pictures of everything. Thanks!
Jeepster Steering

 

The bracket that I used appears to be different than the one that you have.
Here is the Jeepster Saginaw bracket.





You will have to remove the Ross/Gemmer steering box and modify the steering shaft with an adaptor to convert it to a steering u-joint. I used a Flaming River u-joint, Borgeson make quality u-joints as well. This is a good time to replace the lower column bushing.


The motor mount will need to be cut for clearance and reinforced afterwards.





Before mounting the Saginaw box permanently check and re-check for clearances.


A 1" body lift can help with obtaining clearance for the motor mount but I chose to keep it at stock height although I did replace the body mount bushings with new Prothane ones.

So, this is not a step by step summary but just a few pictures so you can see the scope of what will need to be done. Hope this helps.
Oz

 

Thanks Ozfin! The pictures are going to help immensely. Just got a disc dana 30 from a 73 cj5 yesterday. Its a 3.54, so i'll have to swap the gears, but its just what i've been needing. Now to get things in motion.
As a side question, does anyone know the width of the old gladiator truck 16" steel rims? are they wider than the standard CJ 16 x 4.5" ones? Thanks.

 

disks were not a available in 73. probably came from a 76 and up with 354 gears.

 

Yep. '77 was the first year for optional factory disk brakes. 3.54 was the standard axle ratio 1976 through 1980ish.

IIRC Patrick was running those wheels on his flatty. You could PM and ask. Or likely Ken (Oldtime) knows.