Power steering Shaft Options

[lloyd70cs]

Hi guys

I am about to do the power steering swap on my 1970 f250 CS. I've read through the tutorials and tech info. I have the saginaw box out of a 79 along with the pitman arm, pump etc.

Just wondering about the whole shortening the shaft thing. I have a 4 speed so has anyone simply bought an after market borgeson shaft? they have a 33 in 3/4 inch shaft with 7/8 spline at both ends for 40 bucks new.

would that work? rather than cutting the shaft with the possibility of making a mistake.

thanks for any comments

[Ranchero50]

Shouldn't be an issue on the '70. Just the earlier stuff. You can also slide the column in the brackets if needed.

[lloyd70cs]

thanks. that would make the steering 2 inches closer to me though, right? I'm thinking a new shaft means I can leave everything intact and just store my original in my garage if I ever needed to go back to manual steering.
I understand it can be really difficult to pull the fitting off the bottom that connects to the rag joint.

[sargentrs]

I understand it can be really difficult to pull the fitting off the bottom that connects to the rag joint.

That's very true. There's a spline on the end and that shaft is pressed on. Then they swedge the end to balloon it out so the end is bigger than the spline. Mine was worn out and I had my column apart to rebuild it. I had another shaft with a good plate. I welded an 1-1/2" pipe to a heavy metal table at work. Slid the shaft in the pipe and heated the plate cherry red. Then lifted the shaft up from the bottom and SLAMMED it down against the pipe. Heated it and slammed it again and again. Took 5 or 6 slams before the plate popped off the end. Got the other one off the same way. Pressed the good plate on the good shaft and welded the end. It was fun!

[lloyd70cs]

Haha. thanks Sargentrs. it was your post somewhere in this section that convinced me it was going to be a pain!

[lloyd70cs]

so I'm still trying to decide on the steering shaft. it seems the easiest would be to find a telescopic shaft but what do I connect the shaft to the box with? a u joint?

[sargentrs]

Ok, if I was faced with your dilemma, here's what I would research doing...

The steering box spline is 3/4-36 spline
The steering shaft is 5/8-36 spline with a 5/8-18 thread at the steering wheel.
You need to maintain the 5/8" dia shaft for the column bearings and steering wheel.
5/8" D/DD shafts are readily available in a variety of lengths.
Steering U-joints are available in all of the above styles.
You can replace the rag joint with a U-joint.

The only thing I'm not figuring out is the steering wheel end of the steering shaft adapting to a D/DD at the other end. Maybe a machine shop can take the DD shaft and cut the spline and thread the end to the original style? Otherwise, cut, drill, pin and weld the original end to a DD shaft? Is your truck an original floor shift so no shift levers or shift tube? I believe they make shaft adapters for DD to spline shafts?

[lloyd70cs]

I've got the floor shift. the CII steering box I have has a rag joint on it to mate to my steering shaft base plate on the existing manual steering shaft if nothing that will work.

[lloyd70cs]

oops. I mean the ford saginaw box, not CII. I have a CII pump.

[sargentrs]

Since you have a floor shift, and I'm assuming you actually don't have a shift tube in your column, you have a lot more flexibility to modify your internal steering shaft. Plenty of room in the column housing for a coupling or to weld a pipe around the shaft when splice, etc. Here's what I'm thinking:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/brg-013418/overview/

Get that plate off the end of your steering shaft and I believe you can get a U-joint to adapt from the 3/4" spline to the 5/8" spline. The only question is going to be the length. Just throwing stuff out there. Feel free to poke holes in my theories.

[lloyd70cs]

I'm thinking something like this would work paired with a u joint like you linked there Sargentrs.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Polished-Black ... ac2c9b7bac


Still have to work out overall length though. Not sure if the lengths noted in the tech article here on Fordification is tip to tip or to the top of the coupler?

[lloyd70cs]

Actually this would be the exact column I need I believe. 4spd floor shift, power steering from a 73-77.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1973-1977-73-7 ... SwP7NbjtXH

[sargentrs]

Where are you located?

[lloyd70cs]

in Victoria bc Canada

[sargentrs]

Oh....I was going to search junk yards for you but my favorite search tool, car-part.com, doesn't cover Canada.