Hello Guys,
I need to know some information about crossover steering for my 1976 F250 Highboy.

I am fiting the Dana 60 king pin front axle to my truck.

I have just read an article about a imported Cheby truck that is being converted from left hand drive to right hand drive. They are using a post 1989 C1500 steering box that attaches to the outside of the right hand chassis rail. I beleive this is a saginaw steering box??

My question if I want to use this steering box, is there any pitfalls ppl can see? What pitman arm would I use to suit the crossover steering? And what would be the best way to make up the intermediate shaft from column to box?

Also who makes a quality steering arm to fit the knuckle? I am looking for one that has the adjustment on the cap instead of the spring. I would also need the company making it to make it fit the left hand knuckle. Looks like it should be possible to get it mirrored for right hand drive.

Does anyone have other suggestions for a steering box to suit right hand drive? I am fitting a cummins 24v so im not sure i can get one to fir inside the chassis rail. Always looking for ideas. Its tough when you cant wander round a junkyard comparing steering boxes.


ALSO
Can anyone tell me what lift 2002 superduty springs will give me on my 76 F250? They are 2 inch lift aftermarket springs.

Thanks
Corey

 

Steering arm here

NorthWest FabWorks - Products - Steering - Dana 60 Steering Arms


As for steering box on outside of frame you may have to
1: add extra joint on steering shaft with steady bearing crap setup to go over frame!
2: turning radius in one direction may be limited if you plant to run big tires as it could hit steering box.

Just run a 2wd steering box on the inside of frame with a plate welded on the inside with the 3 bolt pattern

 

Thanks for that information, I did not consider the tyre hitting the steering box. The Cheby conversion was just for a 2wd C20, so the size would not be an issue.

What 2wd saginaw box will fit the inside of the chassis rail? Is that the 2wd Cheby or Dodge box?

 

73-79 p/s ford box

 

I have been looking at 73-79 2wd power steering boxes. The F250 ones seem to fit inside the left hand chassis rail. Do I need a different model to the F250? Mine needs to fit inside the right hand chassis rail.

Corey

 

Look into the US (LHD) 2wd saginaw boxes off the Dodge & Chevy trucks.
They mount to the outside of the LEFT frame rail - which would be the inside of the right frame rail fro your RHD.

Here's a pic of the box I got off a 2wd D250 Dodge and grafted it and the hunk of dodge frame it was bolted to into my '74 F-250 4wd.



The pics above were taken during cycling the front suspension to check for clearance on the box. At full bump (leaf spring in a slight, negative arc) and full lock, I still have a bit of room. More than the pics show at least. I'm only running a 35" tire though.

The setup above replaced this hack job that the previous owner did on my truck using a 2wd steering box. Not that the leaf springs hit the end of the sector shaft on the steering box before the axle hit the bump stop. This was NOT a very well thought out (or executed) fix!



If you can find a RHD 2wd steering box, down there and if they are the same design as up here (just backwards most likely) you might be able to bolt it to the outside of your right frame rail & use it. You'd have to get a steering box & look over fitment, etc. though.


Back to the saginaw box I mentioned above. You'd have to weld a "boxing" type plate to the inside channel of your right hand frame rail to mount the box to, but you could boss all the way through the original frame & inside boxing plate to make the thing strong (similar, yet opposite of what I did on mine - pics below). That is IF you are allowed to do modifications like this down there. From what I have been told your "roadworthy inspections" are strict & typically the steering system can't really be messed with.


Pics of how I boxed my frame at the new steering box & added bosses through the boxing plate & frame rail for strength.

 

Hi Xauterus,

My RHD F100 4x4 has the Saginaw P/S Box fitted to the outside of the chassis rail.
I realise this differs from your highboy and that the leaf springs might be in the way for you to copy this installation but the photos below still might be helpful.

 

Chase that 2wd setup is similar to mine but with crossover. That is a crappy setup with the stock draglink and steering arm. Only issue I ever had with mine was I once sheared all 3, 7/16 grade 8 bolts on my first outing with hydro assist. Luckily was a easy trail fix as bolts were new and came out easy. Grade 5's lasted the rest of day. After that I drilled out the holes to run a 1/2" grade 8. Never had an issue since!!
Yesterday we got 10"s of snow and I climbed this local sightseeing hill/paved road which was empty due to snow driving up like an animal drifting the whole way up. It was a blast I did it twice. Axles,steering,shafts all held reving 5 grand the whole way. It was a good snow day off

 

The exectution on using the 2wd box in my truck was POOR by my standards. I would hope/think your install is cleaner & you didn't hack the frame like the PO did on mine. Also based on your avatar I can assume you are using a much larger arc leaf than I am. With that setup I can see possibly not having an issue with the leafs hitting the sector shaft, but my truck gets stuffed (full suspension compression in the front) a bit and with the stock leafs there was a contact issue with the sector shaft even before I used the thing much (wasn't wanting to tweak my frame due to crap design on steering box install).

 

Yeah mine has no frame hacking. It sits lower too. My top hole is in the front face of frame not the top tab. With the longer style in my case the draglink angle is not steep at all. Steering only reacts a little funny when driving on semi snow covered roads at high speeds but that's because of the Detroit in the front. I've got an ARB air locker to go in when I get back from Mexico in a couple weeks so that problem will be eliminated as well. Ive been putting it off installing it as I've been researching best options for On board air and I've decided on an Extremeaire 12v compressor which I purchased just yesterday.

 

Thanks very much for the information.

Chase, in regards to the bad steering set up you had, is there a pitman arm that would suit crossover steering available for that?

If I mounted that set up to the outside of the right chassis rail it would mean that the input shaft would be above the chassis rail and not so close to the tyre as the saginaw steering box. Does that make sense?

Waipuna, can you tell me how close your tyre gets to the steering box?

73 ford guy, thanks for the advice on bolt size etc. We have to get our modifications signed off by an engineer. Something im not looking forward to.

 

Hi Xauterus,

I currently have brand new 33x12.5 tyres fitted and on full lock my tyre is 70mm from the closest point on the steering box which is the pitman arm pivot point on the shaft.

I also run 36x14.5 Mickey thompsons on the beach and on full flex these can come as close as 25mm from the shaft but have never touched it.

W

 

If I remember right the pitman arm can be "clocked" at 90* intervals, so it should work.
I was just thinking about the way the box is set up to rotate the pitman arm when turned & based on the fact that these boxes come stock with the pitman arm facing forward, you'd have to put the box in front of your drag link & point the pitman arm back towards the cab to make it work.

Here's a pic of the stock steering box setup in the 2wd trucks here.




Yes the input shaft should be well above the frame rail - similar to the pic of the 2wd box on my 4wd crew cab in my earlier post.
As for clearing the tires - the 2wd box in question would be a bit smaller of a profile than the saginaw box so you'd have a little more room, but I'm not positive how much.

 

Yes that 2wd box looks like it will be the most suitable without cutting the chassis rail to fit it.

Should I be looking at aftermarket universal joints at both ends with a shaft splined up to suit?

 

That is probably the best way to do it - although I'm not sure the steering shaft that results will pass inspection there in OZ. I'll leave that up to you.

As for the U-joints. I think I got mine at Speedwaymotors.com Mine are splined on 1 side and smooth on the other. I used a piece of 3/4" x .120" wall DOM tubing for the section between the steering column & the box.