Ford Saginaw + Clifford Header On F134

I've heard both this can and can not work. My cup is half empty, so if it can work, I'd like to see picture proof. Post clearance pics of your Ford-style saginaw modified CJ5s with Clifford headers. I'd love to see this work.

My Jeep currently has a Herm Ford setup on it and the steering rod is a straight shot to the bottom of my Summit Chevy-Style steering column. Very simple and very strong, but it's creating clearance issues with the stock exhaust. I may mod the stock manifold to remove the 'snout' but I'd sure love a Clifford Header if I know it'll clear.

 

I had a Clifford header on mine with a Saginaw conversion, my steering shaft had 3 joints and a bearing to make it work. I thought the input shaft on the ford box was more over or outside the frame rail, well away from the exhaust. Don't buy a new header, I still have mine in the attic.

 

I absolutely love this forum!

 

The input shaft of my steering box is a decent ways inside the frame. I had to 'modify' my drivers side mount to have any hope of clearing the shaft. Actually I even had to ditch my mechanical fuel pump, which ended up being a non-trivial reason I went to propane.

Attached is a pic of my setup while I was finishing up mounting it.

As you can see from the pic, I have to set the steering column low, causing more angle than I'd like on both u-joints, to clear the snout of the manifold.

 

is that a 90 degree bend from the bottom of the steering shaft? is that a good thing? is it a bad thing?

 

I believe that most of those steering u-joints ( Borgeson, Flaming River, Sweets, etc) don't work very well beyond a 35* angle.
Oz

 

No, it's more like 30*, just looks weird from the pic angle. The setup works well and smooth with no binding. If I can do something about the exhaust manifold, I can move the base of the column up a little more and use a little longer shaft, resulting in even less angle.

The splined borg joint was too big and interfered with the stock pump though. That was an unforeseen issue. I had been warned about the exhaust and mount 'clearencing'.

That is a 85 Ford Ranger 4 cyl Base model steering gear.

 

I'm looking at getting rid of my ross box set up this winter. good to see another setup/option

 

Not trying to hijack, but I would love to buy that header from you if jrobz doesnt want it.

 

Wow! Looked at your pic, that wasn't what I was picturing in my head. Thinkin' more like ITLkSEZ thread. Seems a lot of stuff to jam in a small area. What does Herm recommend for exhaust?

 

Herm recommends 'clearencing' the exhaust, aka hammering it to crimp it back just a little. Take a look at his website photos. Keep in mind the very slight differences in the chassis from the 80-81". That was not a real possibility for my CJ5 to keep a respectable angle on the steering joints. If anything, I'd like to be able to move the tail shaft of the column up a couple inches, not down. There is plenty of room for the wheel to move up as well. I do like his bracket, and the idea in general. I will withhold final judgement on the entire setup in a CJ5 until I drive it 40+ MPH. Initial feeling is immense positive steering confidence gain.

I'm having a spare stock manifold modified to remove the snout and to move the outlet MUCH higher and straight away from the engine. This should easily allow a fender-well exit and rearward pipe. It also may allow for a undersized turbo (which would be ideal for low RPM use). We'll see how stupid I wanna get. It's already propane, so stupidity on this Jeep is not out of the question.

 

Wait a second....I want to know more.

I almost asked what those hoses were in your pic.

Was there a noticeable decrease in power? PLEASE turbo that thing. That would be awesome.

 

Yeah I finalized the propane conversion recently. Power drop? lol no. Throttle response is much better (much!) than the YF and Solex. The distributor is not indexed correctly, so I may be reinstalling the oil pump to be able to advance timing more. I expect to get even more power (torque/response is what I really care about actually - you want power? get a V6) out of it.

Turbo would be ideal for a power adder on this motor, IMO, with one caveat. The oiling is horrid, even when operating at OEM peak design. It's just old design operating very poorly by todays standards (i know I know won the war yadda yadda lol). If I can figure out an oiling solution that stays in the original spirit of the Jeep, I would hop on it, and therefore open up turbo as an option. I REALLY like the idea of an Ecotec in this application for some of these reasons.

The hoses you see are hydraulic lines. I run a 2-plug hydraulic control valve in the dash. It makes for a really nice plowing configuration with powered 3-way control. I want to upgrade to a 4-plug to able to run 2 lines to the rear for small implements.

I'll attach some pictures of the propane conversion.

 

There have been a few mods to the propane system since that photo but you get the idea. I got it to work with the stock throttle linkage and relocated the battery to the back. More weight back there is good.

 

Awesome stuff man. Thanks for sharing.

 

What kind of mileage do you get?

 

Dunno yet. The project is kinda coming all together. Just did the yard drive the other day. I'll post a propane conversion thread when I know.

 

So back on topic. Does anyone have pics of a ford steering gear and a Clifford header?

Oldrig, you got any pics of your old setup?

 

I'm gonna revisit the steering this winter and finalize the setup. I do want to switch it up to run a CV joint on at least one end and likely move the shaft out of the way so I can run a Clifford header (or perhaps get really really stupid).

In light of the above, I'm gonna have to fab in a place to run a support bearing. Catch is, I can't seem to find a decent support bearing for 1" DD. Seems like all the usual guys carry 3/4" DD. Anyone know of a 1" DD bearing setup? Maybe switch to 3/4" DD? That's gonna get pricey..

 

Any chance of doing a thread on the propane conversion?