Donziweasel
03-20-2008, 05:59 PM
I haven't had much time, with Alltrans, Inc. and answering the car dealer thread:wink::wink:, to do much this week, but did manage to do a very cool conversion.
I want power steering on my Bronc, but the original power steering box for the Bronco is weak, hard to find and ass expensive. I did find a very creative solution. First, I ordered a Saginaw pump for a 351. You had three options within my price range. 1. Use a 1980 F-150 4x2 box. This has problems. Since it was on a 2 wd, it hangs very low and you have to remove the trac bar bracket, weld on a new one in a different location and have to do other major modifications. 2. Use a 1978 F-150 4x4 box. Problems as well. It mounts nice without drilling more holes in the frame with a $30.00 adapter plate. The only problem is that it is designed for the pitman arm to point to the front of the truck, not to the rear like the original steering. Due to it's left hand rotation worm gear, if you removed the pitman and pointed it backwards, when you turned the wheel right, the vehicle would actually turn left. To use it with the pitman arm facing frontwards would take a huge amount of frabrication and changes. The solution- take the right hand rotation worm gear out of the 4x2 box, take the left hand worm gear out of the 4x4 box and switch them as they are a perfect match minus the rotation. Cost me less than $400.00 for both boxes and I got a core back on one of them. In the end, I now have a heavy duty box that bolted right to the frame with the right roation and pitman arm location for much less than an original Bronco box. It is much stronger than original and should handle my 2.5 inch lift and 33's real nice. BTW, did what I just described make sense?:doh: I bet Biuz got it!
Anyway, found a tub in California and having it shipped. Back on track.
I want power steering on my Bronc, but the original power steering box for the Bronco is weak, hard to find and ass expensive. I did find a very creative solution. First, I ordered a Saginaw pump for a 351. You had three options within my price range. 1. Use a 1980 F-150 4x2 box. This has problems. Since it was on a 2 wd, it hangs very low and you have to remove the trac bar bracket, weld on a new one in a different location and have to do other major modifications. 2. Use a 1978 F-150 4x4 box. Problems as well. It mounts nice without drilling more holes in the frame with a $30.00 adapter plate. The only problem is that it is designed for the pitman arm to point to the front of the truck, not to the rear like the original steering. Due to it's left hand rotation worm gear, if you removed the pitman and pointed it backwards, when you turned the wheel right, the vehicle would actually turn left. To use it with the pitman arm facing frontwards would take a huge amount of frabrication and changes. The solution- take the right hand rotation worm gear out of the 4x2 box, take the left hand worm gear out of the 4x4 box and switch them as they are a perfect match minus the rotation. Cost me less than $400.00 for both boxes and I got a core back on one of them. In the end, I now have a heavy duty box that bolted right to the frame with the right roation and pitman arm location for much less than an original Bronco box. It is much stronger than original and should handle my 2.5 inch lift and 33's real nice. BTW, did what I just described make sense?:doh: I bet Biuz got it!
Anyway, found a tub in California and having it shipped. Back on track.