I am looking at converting to power steering on my 66 and can get a box out of a 94 police caprice. As far as I can tell, this is rated at 40 degrees (of travel?) while those boxes out of the Grand Cherokees have 43 degrees. In your opinions, would I notice a difference of 3 degrees?

Thanks,

Ian

I replaced my manual box in a 65 El Camino with a 1998 Grand Cherokee, No problem. I am running 225x60x15 tires. It has been lowered 2 inches on both ends. Go to www.car-parts.com. (http://www.car-parts.com.) Fill in the info needed to find what your looking for. 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee, steeringrack/box/gear.

The results are stored by price. I found 36 pages, with listed prices, with about 48 items per pages. Scroll down untill you find a wrecking yard near you if you want to pick it up. In 1999 Jeep changed the casting and it will not bolt up to the A body. These listings are fron yards all over the country or at the top you can speify to what part of the country you would like your surch to be limited to. I purchased my from a yard near Dallas, for $75. Had it shiped to Seattle. You will have to find a poweresteering arm that is correct for your year vechile.

Team Member #74
65 El Camino

I used the box out of a 1992 Caprice 9C1 (police car package) and it is a 40 degree box like the one you are looking at. I noticed absolutely no difference in turning radius when I swapped the boxes. The notice was in the overall responsivness of the steering and the increased road feel. I'm very happy with the swap. I would say that the Grand Cherokee box or the 9C1 Caprice boxes are probably the two best choices as far as a quick ratio box goes that you can get out of the junkyard that will work nicely with our older Chevelles/Elkys.

The quick ratios boxes are all the same ratio (12.7:1), so the only difference would be making a u-turn or parking, where the overall radius might be changed when using a box less than 43 degrees...

Is the Chevelle limited by external "stops"?

Doesn't the back of the stock steering arm hit the control arm? Does this allow more than 40 degrees? Probably not applicable to different spindles, etc...

Thanks everyone.

Regarding the steering arm, is the output shaft sized and splined the same for all power boxes?

What trick is there to finding the appropriate steering arm?

Thanks again.

Ian

You use your stock steering arms. As for the pitman arm, you will need a pitman arm for a power steering car from 1964-1967. The output shaft is the same size on all the power boxes, but the spline count may be a little different. The new boxes sometimes have a wider "blind spline". This is okay, one of the extra splines on your pitman arm will slide right up into this wider "blind spline" and all will be okay. I had a great post here about a year and a half when I ran into this problem and I figured out the answer. The post has been unfortuantely been deleted. The only thing that no one has thus far mentioned was the power steering pump. To operate one of these boxes correctly (no skips in the assist), then you will need a power steering pump that will put out about 1400psi when the steering box demands it (usually only when the wheels are turn completely one direction or another). This pump can even be gotten off of the donor car if it's a Caprice. The Jeep's use a different pump. Most rebuilt power steering pumps you buy usually don't have any problem meeting this output pressure. Where you run into problems with meeting this higher output pressure is when you already have power steering on a pre-1971 Chevelle and you go ahead and use one of these new boxes on the chevelle with your stock power steering pump. Alot of times what you'll notice is that skip in the assist as you near a full lock with the steering. This is due to the fact that your pump may only be producing 800psi or 900psi. The 1971 and 1972 Chevelles/El Caminos came with pumps that produce 1350-1450psi from the factory. These pumps work great with the newer quick ratio boxes.

I know this may be confusing and I didn't meant to do so, just wanted you to have all the info.

So, let's recap; what you need is:
Steering Arms - Your stock steering arms
Pitman Arm - 1964-67 (power steering pitman arm)
Power steering pump capable of approx. 1400psi

There you go, good luck smile.gif

Thanks Bryan, no confusion at all. Thats all the info I need right now.

Ian