Power steering box differences

[64 f100]

I bought a rebuilt power steering box for a 75 F100 to use on my 66. I tried installing the column yesterday, and nothing fitting the way I thought it should. I had installed a power steering box on my grandsons truck with no problems. I did not have any problems on his truck and actually used the bracket for the clamp from the standard box on the firewall. I have no idea what the difference is other than the one for my grandsons truck is one I bought several years ago, that was a kit the P/O had bought somewhere and never used. It was a quick ratio box, which I do not suggest using as without the engine running it is hard to steer, unlike the stock unit. What I am running into is the box comes out at a higher angle and would require some kind of different seal on the firewall and the angles are all wrong. This box will not work with the angle it is at with the original seal on the steering column. So far, I have not come up with enough information on the boxes to figure out if there are different box configurations. If you go online and look, the general consensus from what I see is the replacement boxes are listed from 68 to 79 as to fitment. I will be doing a search in a few moments of the site, but thought I would ask if anyone has any information as to any differences in the boxes early to later?

[jamesdfo]

Rich: Have a look at this.....

http://www.fordification.com/tech/powersteering.htm

James

[64 f100]

Good information but not helpful in what I need. I have two different boxes that mount the same but one endsup way hihger and requires the power steering clamp bracket while the other does not. It seems to me, that the box I havemounted is larger in some ways than the other box I installed. I have not tried looking at numbers on the box but the new one I purchased has 79 casting numbers on the housing for the internals. This box looks more robust than the one that is in my grandsons truck. The only other thing I can say about my grandsons truck steering box is that it came in a it of some sort and came out at the right angle when installed. My blue 66 has not had the cab mounts replaced nor the rubber bushing for said mounts. I will crawl under the truck and do an inspection later today to see if there is any kind of problem there. At a glance, all seemed well. I have another truck with a power steering conversion and I will look at that today, and see what was done there. Hopefully, I will have some kind of answer later today. I was hoping Tom at Flashbacks might have an answer on this.
Thanks,
Rich

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

Rich I really do not believe what's on that site, but what I have seen on this topic most of it I agree but ON late 68/79 boxes are the same BUT we have had one issue where Ford called us, they got a rebuilt box in from NAPA That was from ying yang company and was a problem on not being right, they sent it back and on the box was suppose to be right,, was not.. Next one fit just right,, looked like a Ford Box but was not right,, just thinking that some ying yang company from where ever is repo these boxes and being wrong,, if it was taken off a Ford Truck it should go back on AS LONG AS THE FRAME Has not been altered.. also if you do not use the power steering firewall bracket will put the column in a bind but I have seen that on what some people do with that bracket, weld couplers to rag joints etc...

[chris401]

Could the difference be for a 4wd/1ton straight axle truck vs 2 wheel drive twin I-Beam truck?

[64 f100]

I ended up relieving the holes in the frame, which I will have to address by welding 1/8 inch plate over the outside holes. Not certain what I have to do with the inside holes, maybe nothing. All in all, the obvious problem is the angle of the box and column, so that it lines up without strain on the rag joint. I did have to do some rework on the power steering collar for the firewall to get it to fit right. Fighting my flaring tool at the moment trying to get the new brake lines installed for the power brakes. I bought anew one from Eastwood and I have the old double flaring tool I bought used ( been used hard and put up wet). Both work sort of, but don't waste you money on the Eastwood one. I have yet to get a decent end out of it. Ordered another one from Amazon for 17$ today, it is a different design and had some good reviews. Will be here in two days supposedly. Hopefully, I will have the lines ran before then. As to 4x4 and 2 wheel drive steering boxes, there is no way those will interchange. I believe there were a lot of different castings for these boxes that cam from Ford, and the later boxes were more robust which may or may not affect the fitment.
The power brake setup I bought was the one CCP sells out of California, with the Valve for disc/drums attached to it. This off course leaves me with a small problem, as the wiring form the brake light switch is fairly short, and there does not appear to be any place to screw it in to system. Easiest would be to run it to a fitting on the rear drum brakes. but I am reluctant to do this as I don't feel it is the correct place and should be run to the front brakes, which then means I have to run more wiring.
Another thing I'm looking at is the mounting of the hoses to the frame. I have done my grandsons with the later brackets from disc brake trucks which is a pain as I have to adapt and overcome, and I do not like the sever bend you have to make to copy the original lines for the disc brakes. On one of the trucks I bought which had been converted to disc brakes, the P/O had used the original 66 brake line brackets, and although it seems to work OK, leaves the rubber brake lines coming close to the springs and may rub, but certainly gets rid of a few problems otherwise. Personally, I am leaning towards modifying the original brackets and changing the angle of the dangle and extending those upward and back. Otherwise, I have to drill extra holes for the later brackets which is a problem on the drivers side. Ford had 1 bolt and one rivet on the drivers side, which you know if you've ever removed one of these for the conversion. You have to cut, grind, or drill out the rivet.
The disc brake brackets are heavier and really need the extra support to keep from working loose. Then you also have to route the brake line under the frame up the outside and then do a nearly180 bend in the brake line tubing. Ford installed springs to help keep the tubing from breaking from the vibration. Even installing all of this with the front end off a truck is a pain. My plan is to run the brake line above the frame in the space below the steering box for the disc brakes. I may have to relieve the inner fender some to get good clearance and a little more space to work. Thinking of doing the passenger side above the frame also instead of making a bunch of bends that are a pain. Thinking this would make running the brake line a little easier and I can use the disc brake brackets. May just weld the drivers side bracket to the frame, or possibly drill and tap the frame for another bolt, which I will do on the passenger side.

Thanks to everyone for responding to my questions. Hopefully, the responses I get will help others also.

[ratrapp]

I hope you have better luck with that ccp kit than I did.my friend ordered one for his 66 mustang and the booster was bad out of the box.we never could get a brake pedal because of all the slack in the booster.

[bossford65]

Did you know that ford made two firewall brackets, one for power steering and one for standard. They are stamped on the backside. just putting this info out there.

[64 f100]

I have both power steering brackets and manual. What is strange, is that on my grandsons truck I could use the standard one with the power steering unit and on my 66 I had to modify the power steering one to make everything fit up right, but as I said I had modified the holes so the box would rotate enough for everything to work right. Only difference otherwise, is that I had new cab mount rubbers on my grandsons truck and my old blue still has the original rubber mounts, so I'm sure there is some sag. Ran the automatic cooler lines yesterday, had to make those as I had none. With I had made those before I installed the motor and tranny. In case anyone would like to know, I used two premade lines and only had to make one cut on the 5 ft. lines. Cut off about 3 inches roughly. Almost cut it to short. Still have to make some support brackets. I used the newer copper nickel line that bend easy, but I had a hard time trying to make double flairs on the end as the line was to thin. Ended up with a flair I was not happy with and hope it holds. If not, I will have an expensive mess with type F fluid at todays prices. Spent several hours at the salvage yard a couple days ago looking for the rod that goes from the tranny to the steering column. Nothing like tramping thru the weeds trying to find one. Found several but trucks were on the ground where I could not get to those. Finally found two I could get off after searching for several hours. Lucky to have a yard where they have not gotten rid of every old truck and car in the yard. Still have to come up with a slip yoke in good condition for the C6. Most likely buy a new one. First I will go out to the building and spend a couple hours looking at my drive shafts and see if there might be a good one out there. My experience has been that if the yoke has been out for awhile it will be rusted badly, or worn where it's not really usable. I have both a car and truck with shafts, but both start and move hate to remove anything that prevents me from moving these to mow under these. I've been looking at ne ones on evilbay and those start at 50$ plus shipping and go up. I think there might be a problem with most of those, as to length. Some are only 4.5 inches long on the snout. The tail shaft sticks out of the tranny about 2 inches, and you need some length to let the shaft slide on the shaft as things move around. I'm thinking at lest a 6 inch snout would be much better. Most likely, I will have to shorten that driveshaft also, as the one I plan on using is about 1 to 2 inches to long. Going to have to figure out something on the PCV valve as the manifold has been changed and there is no actual place for it to go although there is a port where I intend to run the vacuum line for the new power brake booster. I don't like the idea of running those on the same port. Prefer to run it to the carb spacer. I also need to run a vacuum line for the transmission as it is missing, which brings up another question. I was looking at the little air valve on the back of the transmission and it has a place for two vacuum lines to hook up. I've never seen one like that before. I don't know what the second hose hookup is for. One is the main vacuum that goes to the center and the other comes off the front of the little valve like an unloader of some sort. I figure on leaving that one open. Anyone give me any clarification on what it's for? I may crawl under the 75 I have and see if I can trace the lines, if these are the same. For those that may be planning on doing an auto v8 390 C6 swap. I suggest using the C6 from an earlier model with the short cast iron tail with bolt on yoke. Roughly 4 to 5 inches shorter than the slip yoke shaft tranny I installed. I set it in, all together and it was a real booger getting it in by myself. I had to get the angle of the transmission and engine very steep to drop it in. I had thought about going with the other transmission, and now wish I had for a number of reasons. I have one of those engine balancing screw type engine installing tools which has four chains for mounting on each corner of the manifold, even with it screwed a;; the way forward I had to use a come along and pull the front of the engine up to get steep enough to install it.