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Intermediate Power Steering Conversion

Discussion in 'Builds and Fabricators Forum' started by officer_friendly, Sep 15, 2020.

  1. Sep 15, 2020
    officer_friendly

    officer_friendly Member

    Northern California
    Joined:
    May 10, 2020
    Messages:
    86
    My combination of 35x12.50 mud terrains, a front locker and manual steering finally resulted in my stock saginaw manual box giving out on a recent wheeling trip. I haven't looked at the internals of the manual box, but it has developed a ton of play and appears something is stripped or bent on the inside. Upgrading to power steering has been at the top of my upgrade list for a while so now seemed to be the perfect time to do that.

    I decided to go a bit overboard on this upgrade in hopes that I won't have to worry about damaging my steering again in the future. I did a good amount of research and determined that a pre 1979 J20 power steering gear would fit my needs well for turning the 35's. These gears featured a 3.5" bore as opposed to a 3" bore on a wagoneer or J10 gear, as well as 4 bolt mounting instead of 3. I'm not sure what bore the CJ gears had. I spent about two months searching for a used J20 box for sale with no luck. The larger bore should provide a bit more power than a regular gear, and I am looking to avoid going to hydro assist if possible to keep things simple. I instead opted to purchase a remanned gear from redhead. I have never used their products before but they seem to be of good quality...I will be posting an update in the future once I get to stress the steering a bit.


    The new gear is much larger than my stock one. You can see the larger input and output shafts, and 4th mounting tab on the new gear.


    During my last wheeling trip my stock pitman arm bent and twisted when the steering got bound up. A couple forums I had read indicated that a chevy astro van pitman arm would fit onto the J20 steering box. These pitman arms are huge! I also wanted a slightly shorter pitman arm to try and move the drag link forward slightly, as my drag link and tie rod would interfere if I wanted to move the tie rod up for full high steer. Unfortunately when I went to install the astro pitman arm, the splines were too large and not compatible with the J20 box. I ended up having to purchase a wagoneer pitman arm, which should be here during this week.


    I already had one of the MORE heavy duty steering mounts installed, these come with a 4th mounting hole already in the event that you have a 4 bolt steering gear.


    Here it is mounted up for now. I already got a hold of the power steering pump, brackets and hoses and will be installing those tomorrow. My aftermarket radiator is equipped with a build in trans cooler, I purchased fittings and plan on running the power steering return line through the cooler to keep my fluid temperature consistent.
     
    Fireball and jeepstar like this.
  2. Sep 15, 2020
    officer_friendly

    officer_friendly Member

    Northern California
    Joined:
    May 10, 2020
    Messages:
    86

    Got the brackets, pump and hoses all connected today. The brackets all bolted up no issues besides needing to run to the store once for a 6” bolt and spacer to connect the one support bracket to the water pump. The tension bracket lets you use a 1/2” drive ratchet to get plenty of tension on the belt, slipping should not be an issue now. Conveniently the V belt I needed ended being the same exact length as the V belt used for my alternator/york at 52”. This means I’ll only need to carry one size of spare belt on the trail instead of two different sizes.


    Got my return lines connected to the cooler. On my truck the power steering will sometimes whine on cold days. Plumbing these through the radiator should have the effect of warming my PS fluid to 195°F and keeping it at that temp, maybe this will help in the cold? During the winter I take the jeep snow wheeling quite a bit and single digit temps are possible.


    There’s not much space between the steering gear and radiator. Getting the lines connected was a little tricky and required some bending, but there’s just enough room.
     
  3. Sep 18, 2020
    officer_friendly

    officer_friendly Member

    Northern California
    Joined:
    May 10, 2020
    Messages:
    86
    Finally got the wagoneer pitman arm I needed to complete this job. I can’t believe how easy the steering is now, literally one finger steering at a complete stop. The steering is a bit light on the road but nothing crazy. This upgrade was well worth the effort.

    Sorry for the video being a bit dark, by time I got everything done it was dark out.

     
    Rich M., Fireball and 73 cj5 like this.
  4. Sep 18, 2020
    73 cj5

    73 cj5 Not ready for the junkyard yet

    Clinton, Mississippi
    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2014
    Messages:
    2,137
    I thought the same thing when I first tested mine.
     
    officer_friendly likes this.
  5. Feb 25, 2024
    KBJeep79

    KBJeep79 New Member

    Buffalo, New...
    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2024
    Messages:
    1

    Hi,
    I'm currently replacing my manual steering box on my 79 CJ5, sourced a bunch of parts to make it happen, and while installing the J10 powering steering box I noticed that yes, in fact their will be little to no room to install the pressure or return PS hoses.
    I thought I had the right hoses, but upon installation I realized one of the pressure lines was too short, another would not clear the bottom of the radiator, and so I decided to wait and see what others have done in this situation. Did you have to install a different Rad to clear the lines? Do you recall what lines you used? (Part #?) I'm sure I'll stumble onto the right hose setup eventually, but all my searching keeps coming up with generic hoses that I just don't know will work.
    thanks in advance for your help!
    -K
     
  6. Feb 26, 2024
    sterlclan

    sterlclan Member 2022 Sponsor

    exploring the...
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    Feb 21, 2009
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