Going from power to manual steering
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..
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.