Going from power to manual steering

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Richie

Richie

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Hi everyone.



I want to go from power back to manual steering in a 69 Dart with a small block. It was originally manual steering and the power is great putting around town but feels a little airy...like you're flying rather than driving on a road when you're going 60 plus mph. What do you need besides the pitman arm for the manual box, anything else?
 
I just went from manual to power steering on my 68 Barracuda and it's one of the most satisfing upgrades I have made to the car. No more feeling like I am steering the Queen Mary in parking lots and the 16:1 ratio makes the car respond like a new car at speed.

I had heard all the complaints about lack of feel and to much assit with power so I had the local front end shop (a place that does a lot of hot rod work) do an alignment with as much caster as they could, requires more effort to turn the wheels off straight ahead. The steering is still quite light but it is not bad and is way better than the manual steering I had. In 20-20 hind site I should have gotten a Firm Feel box instead of a rebuilt factory box but I will never go back to manual.

Before going through the trouble to swap the steering why not find an alignment shop that is capable of working with you and give it another try.
 
Another vote for the Flaming River adapter. Its a much nicer piece then the others out there.

IM000974.jpg
 
Did the swap a couple of months ago,installing the flaming river box and shaft,love it..the swap also took 37 lbs off the front end..
 
Richie said:
Would that be different?
Click to expand...

Yup, as abodyjoe mentioned they are different sizes. I`d like to add one more vote for the Flaming River coupler, I swapped mine out and "OH" what a difference.
 
340srule said:
Did the swap a couple of months ago,installing the flaming river box and shaft,love it..the swap also took 37 lbs off the front end..
Click to expand...

I did the PS to manual swap a few years ago. Since PS uses a shorter column shaft than manual, I bought a complete manual column from a guy in MI. Because the external parts of my original column were actually in better shape than the "new" Manual, I just swapped out the shaft and kept everything else but I cleaned and repainted everything.

It was a real Rubik's cube just trying to get it disassembled. With the cheap Hedmans, the full-size starter, and that slimy chunk of iron, nothing seemed to have enough clearance to come out. I swapped in a low mileage factory 16:1 box, rebuilt the front end w/ Moog offset UCA bushings with 2 deg caster, and rebuilt the factory coupler which is different than the PS one.

Before this, I ran the PS w/o a belt for a few years as the fluid was leaking out as fast as it went in. Anytime I have an opportunity to lose weight and simplify things, I do it.

One note of caution.....be careful with these columns after they are out of the car as they use plastic shear pins in the upper section. If you drop the column on its end, you will shear these pins as that is how the collapsible column feature works. The theory is that when your chest hits the steering wheel in an accident, the force shears the pins and you don't get impaled by the column.
 
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