Steering conversion question

OK, I've acquired the manual gearbox and pitman arm for my Dart. Now I just need either a longer steering shaft, or shaft adapter.

Is Firm Feel the best (only?) place to get a steering shaft adapter?
I have not yet found another one out there.

Or - assuming I can find a manual steering shaft, can I replace just the shaft, or do I need to replace the whole steering column?

My car is currentl column shift..Does thing complicate things too much?

I got mine from Mancinni racing worked out great very easy fix an it looks cool too http://store.yahoo.com/chucker54/mamastad.html

Flaming river makes a couple replacement shafts,kinda pricey though.

Is your car a column shift auto. or standard shift?
I have a column that is for a column shifted 3-speed trans.,manual steering,either way the rod should be the same.
If your interested i can hook you up with the shaft or the entire column if you want.

I had got mine from firm feel. I was too lazy to replace the steering column or try and find one for that matter. :D

DUH!!! I didn't even think to look in my latest MP catalog!!!!
I'll take a swing by the dealer and see what "my price" is :D

Zombie - I have a column shift automatic. What would you want for the shaft? whole column? Any idea what it would cost to ship something like that? :scratch:

I'm also going to check a few of the junk yards today...they seem to get a regular stream of A bodies...maybe if I'm lucky someone has retired their Grandmas old /6 4 door Valiant :cheers:

There is enough length in the power steering shaft if you stretch the collapsable part of the shaft. It is held with some plastic pins just to keep it together during assembly. Just diassemble the column and pull the shaft appart to the correct length. You may have to drill the plastic pins out.

Doesn't it rattle or have a lot of slop? :scratch: Did you weld it? :pale: That would hurt in an accident! :shock:

It is a tight fit so there is no slop. Just stretch it out. DO NOT weld it or, as you said, it will hurt in an accident.

:D How much of the shaft is still grabbed?

Can't remember exactly (it was like 15 years ago I did this). But I remember being suprised at how much overlap ther was. Sorry for the vague answer, I am starting to feel old. If you have a spare column/shaft kicking around pull it apart and see. The one I did was on a 72 duster power to manual conversion.

Just seems like such an easy fix! :cheers: Makes wonder why no one else has tried it! :lol:

Think outside the box....Steering box that is! Bad Humor.......

so how hard is it. I was thinking of changing the dart. :D

I just recently found out about the power steering column, about two weeks ago when in stripped the 73 Duster to be exact. I pulled the roll pin out of the coupler, disconneted everything holding the column in, and pulled. The splines were kind of stuck so I just yanked on the steering wheel. It came out and when I looked thru the hole in the firewall, half of the shaft was staring back at me. It didn't really dawn on me to measure the shaft to see if it would work with a manual box, but I'll throw it on the table tomorrow to take some pics and measurements. I'll try to post them tomorrow night.

cool. Somaybe all i need is a steering box and an adapter

You mean a steering box and a pitman arm?

If it works you WON'T need the adapter....

Keep us up to speed, we're interested to see the outcome. 8)

All that I did to my steering column when I swapped from power steering box to a manual box, was pull the shaft down and hooked it back up. that was about 1983. I drove it on the street for a few years , and then drag raced it for about 6 years, now it has been sitting in my garage fo the last 8 years. This was to a 1973 Duster, My old race car.

So all i need is a steering box and a pitman arm. HMMM souds to easy

:cheers: Dont even need the pitman arm, it's the same for manual or power steering. :thumrigh:

Really?

I knew all the Mopar boxes were the same, and that the pitman arms were different between body styles. But I thought they were different between manual and power boxes too.

If not, oh well. Now I have two. It's not like I paid for the other one, it came with the manual box.

Also check the size of the shaft/splines on the input shaft of the steering box. There are two different sizes.

:D I checked in the parts manual for differant pitman arm part # and they are the same part #. :cheers: :thumrigh:

I checked the parts manual for my 72 Duster and the pitman arm numbers are the same. But the steering shaft couplers are different. They can be interchanged on the shaft, so if you want to use you're P/S shaft just locate a manual steering car in the junkyard and take the coupler. You could probaby talk the junkyard guy into giving it to you with the manual steering box.

8) 9 times out of 10 the coupler is still on the box anyway. Too much hassle to take off or they don't realize that they could sell it separately! :roll: :thumrigh:
By the way, what IS the differance any way? :scratch: Never noticed any. Maybe in 72 the power steering used a rubber isolater? I know the B-bodies did somewhere in there, 72-74. :?

Looks like there's a 4 1/2" overlap in the powersteering shaft.
http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Sep/20049163678592596279157.jpg
You could probably come out 2 1/2" and still be safe.
http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Sep/20049167237912655354305.jpg