Front axle swap?

I would also agree on that...........but once all that junk was gone I never really seen much difference , effort wise when a Manual Saginaw was installed.

 

I had thought that the recirculating ball design used in the Saginaw steering gear would be both more durable and easier to turn than the Ross gear. I believe the Ross gear is a worm-and-sector or cam-and-peg gear, with higher friction than the recirculating ball.

 

I would have thought that also...........I did 4 installs years ago late 70's early eighties, all Early CJ's with conversions from stock Ross to Saginaw non power on a D-25 or D-27 axles......a pair were 4 bankers , one had a V8 the other was my 65 with a V6......... I had made some pretty nice pieces I made to convert the old stock column over using an oil-lite bushing and new floor plate.......the u-joints at the time were just 7/8" ID PTO type joints........no matter what I tried during that time period and I purposely tried allot ( increased Castor,longer / shorter pittman arm) did the math on the springs , no bump steer , joints and bearings were good in the closed knuckles.........it never seemed to make much difference in the force required department to steer.............noticeably stiff I would say and not much improvement over the Ross at low speed.......driving down the road was no issue, Off road at low speed was a bear along with parallel parking on pavement. All Jeeps had a non stock tire on a 7- 8" wheel and about 9-10" wide tire on 31's.........
Till this day I could never figure that out............I had mine apart so many times trying new things I should have used zippers, I even looked at many cars and pickups back in the day that had manual gear boxes trying to learn something............I personally think it was the old closed knuckle axle as all my geometry matched the later vehicles.......but I really don't know.

 

GM products are mostly the ones with the wider track in the front, but more than anything it is to take advantage of the additional turning afforded by the open knuckle front axle. By making a wider track you can turn the tire further before it contacts the spring. This is also a nice feature of a narrow track 30 swapped into an early jeep as it allows the stops to be set for a tighter turning radius.

 

I have a '79 CJ5 with 2 1/2" lift and 33 12.5 15 on 10" rims and it is manual Saginaw equipped. It is not hard steering at all compared to the Ross. When I had it inspected the state guy said it was borderline play for a power setup and I pointed out it was manual...it turns that easy. Certainly won't make that mistake with the Ross.

On my '79 the real issue is it's just not fast enough. With a locked rear and a 360 you can't turn the wheel fast enough to save it when the back steps out. A power box is in the near (very!) future.

 

Well, i found a manual box on CL today. I was pumped to go get it. It wasn't locked up or anything so I says sure $40 bucks.

I guess you get what you pay for http://i1060.photobucket.com/albums...1-31F9-4AC2-AF85-E91890E52075_zpsfaykhzaj.jpg

From what I read, it is rebuildable for not terribly much. The spud shaft from advanced is like $105 though.

I do have this PS laying around though I think it's from a mid 60's car. http://i1060.photobucket.com/albums...D-A393-4647-BE6C-F8F765A03009_zpsbnlqo0gn.jpg I can probably offset the price of rebuilding the manual box by kicking this one down the road.

Every new post really gives me more to think about, that's for sure.

 

Soak the rusted shaft end in CLR for a while, and scrub at it. I bet it's not an issue at all and won't need replacing. But then, I'm an optimist.

 

I think the shaft is fine, i am also an optimist. I got a rebuilt saginaw power box off amazon for around 100 bucks shipped to my house. Works great. If you were closer I have a used power box and unopened rebuild kit i would give to you free.

 

Hindsight....maybe I should not be allowed to play with the big kids. Haha

There was so much rust buildup I thought the shaft was chipped out not just keyed. I cleaned it up a bit and I'm sure it's perfectly OK. I'll soak it and it should be good to go. Livin' and learnin' they say.

Lynn - thanks for posting those pictures and the insight on the shims and skid plates! One would assume the placement of that front shock would make a difference in the ride?

 

Thanks Chuck! I'll wait to get them check those out. I do appreciate it.

I'll get everything together and mocked up before I lock down what I need. Shafts, mounts, shims etc and then start bugging McRuff.

I feel like things are moving along well. Almost too well, if you guys know the feeling!