steering column: power steering swap

I got all the power steering stuff and I am trying to put it in soon. I was just wondering where would be the best place on the steering column to disconnect it on the parts jeep and recconnect it on the driver. I have everything involved in both manual and power setups. Anyone have an opinion as to what the best option is? I want to keep the original steering wheel. So take it apart at the little u-joint? or right at the box? before the u-joint? I figured if it looks like its going to turn into a can of worms, I'll just cut the column and weld it where I want it.

Oh, also, I don't have a drop pitman arm on my jeep currently. And my parts jeep has an insane, torch modified, drop pitman arm due to the SOA. So I assume I should be looking for a straight power steering arm? I believe the lift is 2 or 2.5 inches.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

You can replace the bell coupler to match the input shaft of the power steering box on the manual shaft. I don't know what year your parts jeep is, but the only difference I found was the input shaft on the gear box. Also the output shaft. You can use a bell coupler for this, but it is a weak point. I replaced the intermediate shaft to match the steering shaft(u joint) and the input shaft of the gear box.



Drop pitman is up to you. If the draglink is up in the air and not horizontal with the tierod you may. If you don't have bump steer don't worry about it.

Good luck!! It's worth it. I just spent the last few months getting parts and installing.

 

as for column, why not leave the column you have, Seperate at the Bell coupler/Rag Joint/WHATEVER you have just before the Gear box? You may have to fab some sort of joint up to match splines though. I took the Rag joint that came with my box, cut the splined section out of the joint. Then cut the splined section off my bellcoupler that was on my CJ. Had a buddy (that welds profesionally) weld the splines from the Rag joint to the Bell coupler. This gave me the correct Input shaft spline size for my joint.

 

sounds like the consensus is at the bell coupler. Thats good because I can leave the steering column on the parts jeep intact. I probably should change that U-joint too. mine isn't nessecarily bad, but it will probably never be easier to change then right before I put the column to the box.

Garbageman, thanls for the pic. nice looking engine bay.

 

The diameter of the steering shaft is the same on the power steering and manual steering. You should be able to just change out the rag/bell coupler to match the power steering box input (13/16" 36 spline). I have never liked the bell coupler style joints, lots of slop and easy to break, so I upgraded to dual u joints with the Flaming River. I use the original 74 steering wheel and shaft through firewall, then connect to the flaming river down to the input shaft of box. Zero slop and stronger joints.

Stick with a flat pitman for now. I'm at 2-3" of lift with flat pitman with no bump steer. My box is actually for an 83 and I couldn't find a 2" drop pitman. But it doesn't need it after all. Since your taking the steering apart, it is a good time to replace what is worn. Now that the Jeep drives straight @ 65mph, it was worth the extra parts and time.

 

Cool. I'm going to go to the local jeep shop and see what they can sell me for a coupler. Everything's going pretty good so far though. I'm going to try to drop a couple new seals in the box quickly before the install.

There was another question I forgot to ask. How does the size of the pulley affect the power steering? I am going to use a different pump that has a larger pulley then the original pump. I imagine if I don't switch the pulleys, I might have trouble at really low RPM. Am I thinking correctly?

 

I should have a rag/bell coupler or two that should work. Yours for shipping cost. I'm in Texas for a few days but will home midweek.

I would love to slow down the power steering. On an early CJ5 it's a little hairy to get use to on the road. I don't think the pulley size will make a lot of difference. Someone here may know that one. One finger driving is weird in an old lift jeep.