Studs for mounting steering box

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Greasyfingers

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The steering box on my 66 barracuda finally gave up the ghost and started puking oil out the sector shaft. I've owned the car since the late 80's and I've never replaced the box.

Last weekend I decided to pull and swap it for a spare I had. I found nuts holding it in place instead of the the typical twelve point bolts. Anyone ever seen this done before? Possibly done by dealer? Should I put bolts back in instead of the studs?

The box was held tight to the mount and all the internal nuts were solid. Just not sure I should go back with them. Could there be strength issue?

Unfortunately, my spare was miss marked and ended up being a b-body box. I got one on order from Steer and Gear. I didn't have a lot of confidence in the local steering repair shop when called them.
 
I have never seen studs and nuts. That would make it very hard to remove, I would think.
 
I thought it was the studs keeping it from coming out, so I removed them. I still had to remove the exhaust manifold and starter to get it out. No matter what I did it would not come out without them pulled.
 
The way these boxes mount I see no advantage, structurally or otherwise to substitute studs. Maybe it was simply the installer could not find the bolts they needed
 
The B-body box the same year should work fine. The difference in the 4 main aluminum manual boxes from '62 up are: 1. '62-6 have the small diameter mounting bolts, and small diameter pitman shaft, 2. the '67-72 boxes have the bigger mounting bolts, and small pitman shaft, 3. the '73-up ones have the bigger mounting bolts and large pitman shaft, and 4, the C-bodies and vans have a redesigned adjustment cap and case, and the large pitman shaft. You can swap #1 into a #2 vehicle by drilling out the mounting holes slightly. You can use the #2 boxes in a #1 car either by periodically making sure the bolts are nice and tight, or, by making some sleeves to take up the clearance. #3 and #4 will interchange, just look slightly different. The #4 box is supposed to be heavier duty, but, I haven't found that to be the case. They use the same worm gear assembly and that's usually the first part to fail. There are also both bushing and bearing sector shaft versions of #1 (common) and #2 (not common). The bearing versions are heavier duty and preferred. There are 3 different ratios used (or can be used) in these boxes.... 16:1, 20:1, and 24:1.
 
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