power steering conversion

power steering conversion
Hi y'all. Just joined as I have spent many hours searching this very same upgrade and lucky me, I found this site.
Many seem to think the 98 durango and 97-98 dakotas are a good doner (also Saginaw). They say it bolts right up and away you go. I searched for these units and it turns out they have a snow plowing optional unit. I just need to figure out how to identify the difference for salvage yard reference.
Or, buy one remanufactured $247us at rockauto.com in Madison, WI. Can't find a CJ box that cheep.
 
Hell Hammerhead and welcome to the site! :chug: (Insert Susie disclaimer here... :) )

As you said, any saginaw box will work including the ones you stated. Don't limit yourself by just looking for those two though.
I picked up a saginaw from a scrap yard for $10 bucks, bought the correct bracket, coupler and hose from an online vendor and got my friends CJ going for right around $100 complete.

The only thing you have to worry about is getting the correct hose - flare or oring. If you have a flare box and pum - get an early style hose and if it's o-ringed, it's a later model hose.

If you need a flare on one end and a o-ring on another - you will have to have a hose made up.
 
I should mention, use hose made for power steering fluid.
Fuel hose will degrade over time, that's why you don't use it on mastercylinders either.

I found a Jeep Eagle in the JY yesterday, anyone know if the power steering from it will work on a CJ?
It has the I6 and under the hood looks just like my CJ. I might get the AC while I'm at it, LOL. Wish I knew more about AC's I'd know what parts I need to make it work.
 
Thanks CJ for the "welcome to the site." I appreciate that and having seen your email I was planing to send you a thanks for having me.

As for the subject of this thread I too am working on gathering the parts nessessary for this manual to power steering upgrade and have concernes about using just ANY Saginaw. I have heard of someone who was not able to steer from stop to stop left and right, nessessitating moving his box forward to accomodate a longer pitman arm or frigging with Knuckle geometry to enable him to do a u-turn without making it a 3 time back and fourth menuver.

I have a line on a YJ being parted out and will see if I can pirate the pump from it for use in my 85. Also want to get the booster. I will try to use it with my existing master cyl. to avoid bleeding and to keep the lines to the far side of the engine.

Any comments about my plan that anyone else has tried and found difficulty with this arrangement. Please let me know. All advise is appreciated.
 
Hammerhead said:
~~have concernes about using just ANY Saginaw.~~
Click to expand...
Your concerns are warranted (kinda). Any saginaw will bolt up, not all are optimal for your Jeep. Did you see 'CJnuts' post about the ones with '76' being the quickest ratio? -->> http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f19/power-steering-conversion-874/#post6751 I'm sure there are others with a fast ratio - they would be the best... :)

I'm not sure about the booster though - I'll let someone else chime in on this one...
 
Yup, seen it and just revisited it. Its all good for you guys down south but I am hard pressed to find any kind of truck eirlier than a 1988 (20 year old) here in Canada. They are all rotten. (Winter road salt, and the past two years using liquid de-icer befor the snow falls. Not sure how bad that will be for our cars.) When I unbolt things that have been bolted last at the factory I frequently make use of what I call the gas axe. The main scrap yard near me has only 2 TJ's, no YJ or CJ. Mind you they sort of specialize, newer cars and fast turnovers of stock. I have to go out of town (over a half hour) to get to the yards that cater to truck stuff and older junk, thats kinda specialized in this area. These places will pay a bit of a premium for our good old junk. I dont drive my CJ or my Bronco in winter. $10k invested in the Bronco. Most of the sheetmetal replaced and no lift yet, but its got a custom roll cage, custom top, winch, 2 rear facing off road lights and 4 forward fold down lights on the roll bar. Sweet. My daily driver for not freezing months. I dont wheel it cause it just isn't competent yet. It can tow the CJ though.
 
Well that makes 100% sense... I sometimes forget about the people who can't go walk the yard and dig around. That being the case I would get what you know fits - no questions asked... :) Without having the ability to pick and choose - it's not worth your hard earned $$ to make assumptions...

I did some research on a YJ vs a CJ master cyl and I can't find any real difference. It looks like it will work just fine. There are differences though (according to the part numbers) but many times, that is not something you need to worry about, it usually is because they changed a very minor item during the years. Hell, even the 85 CJ has 4 different master cylinders called out yet they are virtually the same.

I would say that you will have no problem mounting the YJ MC, you will have to (most likely) move, adapt or swap the lines though. Be VERY sure that they are BOTH from the same side (drivers vs pass) as I have seen MC with lines swapped.

Good hunting!
 
I may have been a bit missleading CJ. Many scrap yards arround here you may go in the yard after signing a waiver. Some will not let you in and some have all the regular goodies removed and stocked.

Saturday past I scored some stuff from a partout 1992 YJ. I have the power steering pump with hoses and a remote reservoir but no brackets. It was a HO 4 liter. Mine is the AMC 2.5 liter. Dont yet know if this will proove to be any good to me. Besides, the pump seems a little crunchy in the bearings.

Also scored the booster/master cylinder with proportioning valve. Removed the master from the booster as I do not plan to use it. Cleaned up the booster for paint and glass beaded the spacer bracket for paint. After pulling my master from firewall leaving lines intact I painted it too. Looks like this will go together well. I will likely need to modify the push rod and adjust the secondary push rod between booster and master. Will start a short write up as to what I do after its done. I know a lot of people like to know the year make and model of parts used for modifications like this so I will pass on my findings after I get it rolling again. May take time because I think I should attend to the power steering while the brakes are not in my way. Found a bad bearing at the bottom of steering column while I was in there.
 
BrockGrimes said:
I found a Jeep Eagle in the JY yesterday, anyone know if the power steering from it will work on a CJ?
It has the I6 and under the hood looks just like my CJ. I might get the AC while I'm at it, LOL. Wish I knew more about AC's I'd know what parts I need to make it work.
Click to expand...

does anyone have an answer to this, there are 3 eagles wiht i6's in a local jy near me


Your concerns are warranted (kinda). Any saginaw will bolt up, not all are optimal for your Jeep. Did you see 'CJnuts' post about the ones with '76' being the quickest ratio? -->> http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f19/po...-874/#post6751 I'm sure there are others with a fast ratio - they would be the best... :)
Click to expand...

were is the 76 stamped and why is the quicker ratio needed?

thanks,

-J-J-
 
Sorry, I don't know if the PS will swap over from the Eagle. But as far as the ratios go, largerer cars will usually have a slower ratio box so that the steering response is not so quick. Big cars tend to have cushy suspension that is less tollerant of quick moves, and become unstable pretty fast. Smaller vehicles, like sports cars, will enjoy a stiffer suspension and by nature need a quick tun ratio so you're not sawing on the wheel to corner it. Jeeps benefit from a quick ratio so that only small input at the wheel will correct your line when off road and on rough terrain. I don't know why a steering box would hamper the radius of turn, I never heard of that.
 
The steps are all here in this thread. Heres a recap for ya. I took this from another thread I started about power brakes and we all got into a rant about steering. I can't help with YJ power steering, but the CJ did require the power steering pitman arm and the coupling at the base of the steer shaft. In other words, the steering box has different input and output shaft sizes compared to the manual box. I got my parts from a guy who specializes in CJ's, $AMC 150 for everything I needed including hoses. All used from a CJ .The pressure line was like new and the return line was fine except for cracks in the hose. The dude gave me new hose to replace. The box has a 76 in the casting (Quick ratio I here). From memory the 76 is near the front left of the box casted in vertically about 1" numbers. Easy to read. Also, very easy install if you have all the OEM parts.

WARNING, those of you who have the 2.5l engine will suffer a huge loss in engine power. I have heard of people running the quarter mile races with drive belt accessories disabled. Now I have hands on experiance as to why. My CJ had a hard time to maintain highway speeds around 65mph ( with my 31" bias mud terraines). After installing power steering I have difficulty getting the darn thing into 4th gear. 50 to 55mph is hard to do. When the road has a down grade I am able to use 4th. Yup, now I need to upgrade the engine. I have a line on a nearly free Chev. 350 that can turn 7500rpm without kabooming. It is a used oval track race engine my buddy has. I am part time pit crew helper for him so he offered up the gear. My concern is that engine will have too much power and the CJ will start to granade drivetrain parts. A HO 4l would likely be a better swap. Anybody who has hands on experiance with either of these swaps could chime in here.

 
Hammerhead
You are right a 4.0 would probaly be easier on driveline parts. I have a 350 (almost stock) in mine. It still has the 30 in front and the 20 in the rear with 1pc. axles. I have kept them alive but you have to take it easy on the skinny peddle:eek:.
 
Thanks for the reply Old Dog. I too have the one piece rear axleshafts and a lunchbox locker. I bought the CJ with a spun axleshaft/hub from the four banger. Have you broken the axles or skinny driveshafts with that engine?
 
Hammerhead
So far the only thing to break was a u-joint in the front axle. That was taken care of with alloy usa shafts which have the bigger u-joint.
My stock driveshafts have held up so far but I'm saving up for some tom woods shafts as mine are just barely long enough. The front shaft is the skinny one used with the auto Transmission .
The 20 with Superior axles, Detroit locker and welded tubes has held up so far but I have plans for a truss if it makes it that long.
So far it's made it for 4 years now and it gets pounded on pretty good sometimes. Mostly off road.
I think my auto Transmission . helps take some of the shock load as some people don't have as good of luck.
 
The 76 boxes work fine, but keep in mind they may be 30 years old. Mine was leaking and the next one leaked. So far so good with the new AGV box I found new on Ebay for $80. It was made just for a Jeep. Most Napa stores can make up the pressure line. The length can change if the pump is on the right or left side. 73 was on the right side,
Tub.JPG
alt on the left.
 
Hi,
Read about your conversion. It is what I want to do. I have a 78 CJ5 w/manual steering and a donor 1979 CJ5 . What do I need to change and what "special"problems might I run into. Any help would be great.
Brian
 
So my question is, has anyone tried this conversion on an older CJ5 . Mine is a1971 with the V6 Dauntless Buick 225 V6 and I question every time I see all the "goodies" and "upgrades" that don't seem to apply for my old girl. I lover her but, she don't like to left and right. Also would the Dauntless Buick 225 V6 be able to supply enough power afterwards?

Any advice would be welcome.
 
bprimrose said:
Hi,
Read about your conversion. It is what I want to do. I have a 78 CJ5 w/manual steering and a donor 1979 CJ5 . What do I need to change and what "special"problems might I run into. Any help would be great.
Brian
Click to expand...
I am assuming the 79 is power?
you need the steering box and pitman, the steering shaft, pump, brackets, belt and hoses.
If you get it all installed be sure to bleed the system with wheels off the ground with engine running.
 
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