The past 2 weekends Ive lifted the front of my 76 Highboy 4". I welded in a 2"x6" 1/4" thick piece of steel tube between the front spring hangers and frame, 2" add-a-leafs, and 1 3/4" longer shackles in the rear of the front springs. I get my new Skyjacker 8000 shocks sometime this week. Heres my problem. I have the power assist steering, and I CAN NOT afford to do the conversion to true power steering. My steering is in a bind, the angle of the arm that goes from the pitman arm to the steering arm on the knuckle is too steep. Ive read a drop pitman arm for these trucks puts too much strain on the steering box, and that putting a block on top of the knuckle is dangerous. Are there any other options? How much money and work is involved in converting to crossover steering, and would it work with my power assist setup? This is my daily driver, so Im driving it right now, but its kind of scary when I make a turn and the steering wheel doesnt spin back to center like it did before. Any help is appreciated, Thanks.

 

Heres a picture



That arm with the hoses on it used to be level.

 

Sorry Tret, can't help you much. The convertion looks pretty simple if you can find the right gear box. If you get an early model box, it take a little fabbing. The 78-79 box is the prime swap box because it is pretty much bolt on. As far as the binding, can you build a bracket to drop/angle the box any? Hopefully you can get this figured out soon.

 

get a tapered reameer and ream out the top of the steering arm so you can move the draglink to the top of the steering arm....or take the arm off and have a machine shop doit

 

is that a dana 44 front axle? if it is, get a steering arm off a chevy 44 from the mid to late 70's, the majority of them are tapered already from top to bottom and bolt right on, and if you keep your eyes peeled at the boneyard or on ebay you can find em once in a while that are 'raised' instead of flat.. thats the easy cure for steering geometry when you convert to full power later in life also...

 

trey, my dad has a 78-79 box, but i think he wants like 250 for it.

 

Does it matter if its a 1/2 or 3/4 ton chevy front? I know where theres a 6lug Dana44 Chevy front axle sitting in the bushes, it might have the arm on it still.

 

as long as it has the 3 stud arm it shoudl work....couldnt hurt to try....it can be a huge pita to get the conical washers out to get the arm off

edit:i dont htink the arm will work, the chevy draglinks use the "1 ton sizezd" large taper high angle tre's for their draglinks....in other words your draglink's tre will probably be too small, but it cant hurt to try

of course you could always fab something

 

it does look some what steep but check the caster angle that caused my steering wheel not to come back the more negative the worse. like riding a bike no handed with the handle bars backward.

 

dude, if your truck's like pros, you could rig up a 2wd box too. The half tons dont have the boxed frames all of the way up, but yours should. Then you mount the 2wd box on the inside of the rail, run down a drag link (or have one made) and you're good to go. I know you can find 2wd boxes at the pull n save all day here, and they're like 25$

 

the 2wd conversion is a commmon one for the older fords, i've done it 3 times and am getting ready to do it on my crewcab next... the chevy drag link is bigger, i just used an adjustable one and screwed out one end and got the correct size threaded ball joint for the ford arm and then used the chevy one for the axle steering arm... it helps to have buddies work in alignment shops:-)