1970 800 A power steering

[captchee]

Good morning fellas . Its been some time since I posted but life got in my way for a while.
I thought I would post the power steering swap I just finished on my 800A

For a box I used a box from a 1995 jeep grand Cherokee. When I picked up the power steering box I also picked up the steering linkage from the box to the column. The reason I did this was that it had small u joints at both ends and was a collapsible .

Now my 800 already had a I assume a factory type collapsible shaft from the column to the manual box . But it had a rag joint on one end and the common T type joint on the other where it attached to the box , which was in rather bad shape as well and I couldn’t get the angle I needed so as to set the box level with the frame.
What I found was that the bottom end of the Jeep shaft was the same ID as the OD of the bottom end of the scout 800 shaft solid shaft . The jeep shaft is also collapsible and about 21/2 inches from lock to stop . IE its not pinned in place like the scout shaft . They slide right inside each other nicely, no slop or play IE a good tight fit . So I cut the Jeep tube off just behind the steering column joint . This aloud me to slide the scout shaft 1 inch inside .After cutting the scout shaft off to compensate , I then slid the two together , then welded things up and cleaned up the weld ..
So now I have the U joint at the box , thus giving me a greater angle to the box and the ability to extend the shaft to my scout steering column as I have the ability for 21/2 inches of adjustment.

probably someone already has found this out and noted it . but i though i would post it , just in case .
first is of the box . you will notice that i have a front cross member . So I had to notch out the back cross member . This I will box in once I do the finish welding .
I still have to weld up the upper support for the box .



as to the steering linkage . Here is the joint that was on the steering column side of the shaft I took from the grand Cherokee, this is next to the bottom half of the link from my 800


Originally the joint was attached to a shaft that had another shaft that slid up inside it . Which in turn had a joint at the steering box end ..
The shaft on my 800 did the same thing but was longer . IE I had a shaft within a shaft
While I was pulling the pump from the grand Cherokee, I though the shaft looked very close to the lower shaft on my scout so I grabbed it to .
After getting home and micing the two lower shafts , I found them to be the same .
So I cut the joint “again the one you see , off of the larger tube of the GC
This photo shows the lower shaft end of my 800 and the inside of the upper end of the larger shaft of the GC



After cleaning up any burrs , you can see that they fit together very clean and tightly .



Then I cut the lower shaft from my 800 down so as to have it slide 1 inch into the upper shaft of the GC and so the two upper shafts butted together . What this gave me was the ability of the shaft to still be collapsible and have the Bergson joint at the box

Now I haven’t finished cleaning up the weld yet but here is a shot of the new shaft


Im sure you all notice the torch cuts . Originally when I got the 800 the PO had done a patch job on doing a PS box . I did not think it was safe so I took it all off and put a manual box out of my other 800 back on ..
The 800 also had a 4 inch body lift and the PO had used a hack saw to hack up the radiator support so as to get the steering shaft to clear .
Since that was already done , I just cut all that out and will come back and weld a new section back in and clean this all up .

If this had not been done all I would have had to do is notch this section just a little to clear the shaft .
I should also note that the grill will not need to be modified at all to clear the box.

Now , having the Bergson joint at the box this left the rag joint which bugged me .
so i got to wondering if the GC steering joint would fit . this joint is the one i showed in my first photos .
so i pulled the column out and took it apart .
what i found is that the shaft is alos the same OD as the ID from the GC tube .
so i removed the rag joint flange . cut 1 1/4 off the column housing .
put all the bushing back into the column
i then ground the flats on the shaft and slid the GC upper joint into place. then drilled both for a retaining bolt . dropped the washers , spring and seat .
put the shaft back into the housing . replaced the wheel , then put it all back in .

now for the bottom half ..
i knocked the old rag joint flange off .
this section of the scout steering linkage is a tube . it was the same OD as the connecting side of the GC joint . so what i did was turn down a piece of bar stock so that it slid 3 inch’s into the tube . i then ground the flats . inserted the this into the tue and welded it up .
for just alittle what if /just in case , i drilled and added a retaining bolt . not that its should be needed but if figured , it couldn’t hurt .

so now i have a colapsable shaft with U joints at both ends of my steering . IE one down at the box and one that replaced the rag joint . all for 7.00 from Pick a part .
i should also note that the upper joint on the GC is also a vibration joint in that its got the hard rubber internals to reduce road vibration .

here is a photo


i should have noted concerning the upper rag joint flange thats attached the the steering wheel shaft .
again i dont know if Bill or George has noted this before .
in the past i have read that upper flange was not removable .
after inspection it looked to me like the shaft was splinned to fit the flange . Then the center of the shaft was counter bored what appears to be 3/8 of an inch . This aloud the flange to be set to the splines , then the shaft flared so as to lock the flange in place on the shaft .

So I set the shaft into my drill press , dropping it through the center hole on the drill table . Using a ¾ drill bit I removed the flair from the inside of the flange .
The flange then just pops right off. This also left approximately ½ an inch of splines on the shaft .
Im not sure those splines would be useful to know about but ill mention them just in case.

Again I want to make clear that I did not have to cut the actual solid steering shaft from the wheel to the upper rag joint . I only cut down the outer column housing so as to provide enough room for the new joint to slide fully onto the shaft
Taking alittle out of this section thus exposed the amount of the shaft I needed so as to attach the new joint and still gave the internal parts all the correct fit .

Here is an old photo that shows my column with the rag join prior to the modification and the area I cut off the column tube .


This modification was of very little cost and appears by the number of 95 GC at the pick a part , its readily available . Now that I have done it , I probably could do it again in an hour or so .

The plus IMO to this mod is that
a) it does away with the rag joint while at the same time providing for the dampening effect of the stock rag joint
b) for those of us with body lifts or other mods that require a greater degree of angle to the steering . this completely removes the need to have to change the angle of your column . Thus negating all the other issues that in some cases also have to be dealt with concerning column angle
c) you get a fully collapsible linkage that can be simply compressed to remove . IE no pulling the pump or loosening up the steering column to take it out

There is one drawback though.
If you have to replace the upper joint , your going to either have to remove the steering wheel so as to take pressure off of the lower inner spring . Either that try and fight compressing the spring from the outside as you push the new joint back up in place .

So now the upper box perch welded in and the frame reinforced and the cross member that I notched out , boxed back in . then I shot a coat of paint.
I made this mount from 1/2 inch well casing . Then supported it with 3/8 plate on the frame . for the gussets i used 1/4 plate


While waiting for the paint to dry I started trying to figure out how I was going to clean up the issues with the old body lift .
I had some scrap diamond plate out along the shop so I cut a template and flanged the edge to match the area that was cut out of the radiator mounting .
Stepping back , it looked kinda odd so I did one for the other side even though there wasn’t anything wrong over there .


As you can see I was starting to have some rust issues around the battery and bellow it so I decided now would be a good time to Rhino line everything behind the grill but the fan shroud .
So out cam the wire brush for my grinder and I went at it . Shot 3 coats of Rhino liner , let it tack up and re installed my diamond plate .



As you can see in the above photo , I have the Power steering box bolted back in place . Here is another closer photo with the hoses installed


Now with my lift , if the PO had not hacked up the bottom of the driver side radiator support, you can see that only a little notch would have been needed to clear the steering shaft .
Also here is a photo of how the box sets in relation to the grill . You can see that even without the body lift , no cutting would be needed to the grill at all


Here is a shot of the underside . The grill clears by a good inch


i got the PS pump bracket reinforced and the vacuum pump mounted .
I also added a vacuum pump from a 1990 ford diesel
I tell you what . I don’t know why I didn’t do the vacuum pump along time ago.
Even with a dry windshield, the wipers are running nicely . No more dead wipers when I hit the gas.