Power Steering ...

Do I need it? I took my CJ off road in north Georgia over the weekend and was surprised that it went fairly well with manual steering. Definitely not the rubicon but I found I actually had better feel for the trail then my previous cj's that all had power steering. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated from this very knowledgable group.

 

If you like the feel with just manual steering, stick with what you have. Your tires look like a reasonable size, so you may not need the assist. As an intermediate Jeep, you already have a Saginaw box. The Willys and Kaiser era Jeeps had a Ross box mounted on the frame just forward/below the firewall, with archaic linkage leading to the tie rods. These earlier Jeeps often need to be upgraded.
-Donny

 

You're fine. Power is nice, but if you can handle the parking and slow speed around town, no need for power. I drove a F-100 with manual steering for a decade, and it worked ok for me. (I was a lot younger ).

Converting to power with a 232 or 258 is a PITA - check old threads. The conversion is easy, but finding the right parts is a PITA. 304s are easy though.

 

Thanks,
I started gathering parts nearly a year ago and have the necessary passenger side pump brackets, but now Im starting to rethink things.

Manual steering pros:
- excellant handling and feel on the street (for a 45 year old jeep)
- reduced complexity - less to break or maintain
- less stress on steering components off road?
- Ive already got it

Manual steering cons:
- PITA parking
- requires some vehicle movement to turn the wheels in deep ruts offroad
- im not getting any younger (or stronger)

Im currently running 31x10.5 tires and may consider 33x10.5s at some point. My interests are trail riding in the limited areas available to me in the southeast. No mud bogging or hardcore rock crawling. Im interested to know if others are running similar setups and are happy with their manual steering.

 

You have a way to make the hoses? If I were in your shoes, I would go ahead and use the existing frame bracket and a brace. PS is plenty reliable, so the lower complexity is not much of a issue. It also improves the resale value. You won't lose in the long run. You'll like it.

I have factory PS on my all my Jeeps, and it's one-finger easy.

 

There are a few times when I had wished for PS on my 5.....mostly in the rocks. Other than that, my manual Saginaw is good enough and fairly effortless.

Nice looking JEEP, BTW.

 

If you have not bolted on the brackets yet, I suggest you do that before you spend any more time, effort and money. Every few months here there's a thread about someone who's bought the power steering brackets for a 232 or 258, and they put the parts together and nothing lines up. If you are ambivalent about PS, you don't want to go too deep with what you have without making sure it will work. Last year for the passenger side location was 1974 - subsequent years were on the driver's side. You also need the pulley that bolts to the end of the existing crank pulley, and the hoses for that location are really long. The baby Jeeps use different brackets than the full-sized (not sure why - fender clearance?).

Here's the parts manual picture -



Note to mods - maybe you could move this to the Intermediate forum? I think it has enough content that it's worth saving.

 

Thanks Tim, heres what Ive gathered so far. I know hoses will have to be lengthened and a lower bracket will need to be fabricated but it looks like it can be made to work:

 

Edit - I put the top bracket on backwards when assembling for pics. Need more coffee