I put a power steering box in a 66 ford f-100. Now its about 2inches to long Is there a way to shorten it ,or is it less trouble to get a new column?
Thanks for your help.

 

shorten your column or find one from a power steering truck 69-79 vintage and re-use your collar to bolt it under the dash.

 

I am presently going through the same mod myself. There are alot of variables involved. Did you install a stock '66 Bendix p/s box? I'm guessing not, otherwise you should be able to bolt it straight in with no problems. If you put in a later year ('70s) Ford (some call it Saginaw) box, you run into steering shaft length problems. I'm surprised your shaft isn't closer to 3 inches too long. I understand length differences may be driven by which steering column/transmission you have. Four on the floor is different than three on the tree which is different from the automatic on the column shifter. Mine is a 4 speed and although I'm not finished yet, I ended up having a machine shop chop 3 inches off the end and weld the rag joint coupling back on. At least then I knew what I had and could get a new rag joint to fit it. I tried to get a correct length shaft from the junk yard, but after several tries I could only find one, the threads were screwed up, nobody had the correct tap/die size to fix it except MAC tools who wanted $35 for it, a thread repair kit was the right size, but did not cut deep enough, and then there was the issue of what was the correct rag joint for it . . . so I just had my original shaft cut. So far, it doesn't look like I will have to cut the steering column, but yours may be different if it's an automatic or 3 speed. Lots of people have posted on this before. Hopefully some of them will chime in. Good luck.

 

[quote=SuperSabre;10103216]I am presently going through the same mod myself. There are alot of variables involved. Did you install a stock '66 Bendix p/s box? I'm guessing not, otherwise you should be able to bolt it straight in with no problems. quote]

The Bendix box is not a direct fit. You will need the steering shaft (not the whole column, just the shaft) out of a power steering truck. I removed one from a 1968 F100 parts truck and put it into my 66 column. Without doing this you will have a about a one inch gap between the steering wheel and the column. Manual steer trucks used a 35 5/8" inch long shaft (C5TZ-3524-H), power steer trucks (Bendix) used a 34 15/16" shaft (C6TZ-3524-M). This shaft was used on 66-68 trucks equipped with Bendix power steering. The 69 and later shaft on power steering trucks with the Ford steering gear used a 32 7/8" shaft. Some early 69's were equipped with the Bendix box as well.

 

Bendix P/S: 1966/68 F100/250 2WD & 1969 F100/250 2WD BEFORE serial number D96,001.

Ford P/S: 1969 F100/250 2WD & F350 FROM serial number D96,001, 1970 F100/350 and later.

P/S was not available on F350's prior to serial number D96,001.

 

Question then: Sorry to jump in with another question, but if all you wish to do is shorten your manual steering column on a 66 F100/250 can you simply install a 32 7/8'' shaft from a post 1970 power steering truck? I guess you also have to shorten the shifting mechanism with a 3 on the column shifter, but welding that shifter shaft seems safe, welding the steering shaft is scary to me ....what is your opinion?

Thanks!

 

I'm not sure if you can install the 32 inch shaft in a 65-66 column. I used the Bendix set up because I already had a 68 parts truck with that setup. Maybe someone else here has tried it.