Lost in MUD, help. (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Threads
1
Messages
21
Location
Christchurch
Hi, I'm not having much luck navigating round this site. What I have found has been incredibly helpful.
Can anyone help me out.
I've got a bj74 power steering box, linkages, & column & want to retrofit it into my 1978 fj45. Is there a link to show if anyone has done it to make this easier or any pics of one installed. Extra bracing etc.
I plan on bolting on outside of chassis rail in front of shock tower, looks like I need to notch tower slightly & battery tower. Put crush tubes in chassis & bolt through with plate on inside. Is it possible to remove the pitman arm & spin it 180 degrees to face forward?
Any help greatly appreciated, Carl.
 
Most of the conversions you will read about here are Saginaw and some fj60 and mini truck. Sounds like your box is mounted similar to an fj60 or 80 box, so focus your searches to those.
 
IPOR. Iron Pig Off Road. Pretty much tell you how to go about the FJ60 setup. Great people too, Will answer all your questions.

073.JPG
 
I worked with Georg @ Valley Hybrids or Orange40 I think is his tag on Mud. I went with the Ford F250 shock towers. If you want pics of mine and how it was done I can take some and send them along.
 
Hi, I'm not having much luck navigating round this site. What I have found has been incredibly helpful.
Can anyone help me out.
I've got a bj74 power steering box, linkages, & column & want to retrofit it into my 1978 fj45. Is there a link to show if anyone has done it to make this easier or any pics of one installed. Extra bracing etc.
I plan on bolting on outside of chassis rail in front of shock tower, looks like I need to notch tower slightly & battery tower. Put crush tubes in chassis & bolt through with plate on inside. Is it possible to remove the pitman arm & spin it 180 degrees to face forward?
Any help greatly appreciated, Carl.
The 70 box is wildly different in that, as you've discovered, the pitman arm turns the opposite way to 60 and 80 boxes. It can be done, but only by mounting the box out on the front chassis rail, usually requiring cutting of the bib. It's not pretty. The 60 and 80 setups as oldmuddog has posted are still within the body. There's a bloke in South Africa with a 70 series setup, I'll see if I can find it.
 
70 series conversion is one of the easier ones to do mate but as said the steering box has to sit right out in front as its a rearward facing pitman arm (you cant turn the pitman around top face forward or it'll steer in the opposite direction you'll need a 60 or 80 series box to do that)

there's a million variations of how you can do it, the way I did mine isn't necessarily the best way but it was simple and complied for NZ to be road legal and certified

I kept the original steering column and had the rag joint cut off the end of the shaft and a 14mm spline cut onto it ($50) and put a bearing inside the end of the steering column tube to support the steering shaft , if you want to use the 70 series column the firewall needs modifying and you'll probably find the 70 series collapsible steering shaft wont be long enough to reach the steering box


40 series column with rag joint cut off and bearing in bottom of tube ( the steering shaft beside it is the old one set up for a sag box I removed)
DSCF1806.JPG






70 series collapsible steering shaft and you use a standard Toyota 14mm to 14mm U/J to join it to the steering column shaft, I get the U/J's off Toyota Starlet steering column's from the junk yard

DSCF2247.JPG



DSCF2250.JPG




The rest is pretty much bolt up, measure up where to mount the steering box making sure you have enough length left in the collapsible steering shaft and that the tierod and drag link aren't going to fowl on each other and the pitman arm isn't going to come in contact with the leaf spring under compression etc as the suspension cycles, weld a plate on either side of the chassis rail with some crush tubes in it, the shock tower will need notching and I also had to space mine back 10mm to get the shaft to clear better

f.jpg


c.jpg
 
Last edited:
You'll find the TRE on the end of the fj40 draggling is too small to fit the taper in the 70 series pitman arm, I swapped my draglink, tierod and steering arms all over to 70 series they are all heavier and stronger than the 40 series, are the correct length and bolt straight up

c.jpg


d.jpg




Toyota NZ sell 70 series tierods and draglinks complete with TRE's on the ends for $50 each over the counter so there's no need to put old rusty bent ones on
12.jpg





when I do the hydraulic lines I get generic hoses made up and screw in fittings made for the ends so as I've changed a lot of engines and steeringbox/pump options over the years and it's a lot cheaper to get a new screw in end fitting made than a whole hose


DSCF2460.JPG
 
Wow, thanks for all this info guys.
Is it possible to spin the pitman arm 180 then simply swap the hoses round or will it not work?
If not I will source a 60 or 80 unit.
 
I worked with Georg @ Valley Hybrids or Orange40 I think is his tag on Mud. I went with the Ford F250 shock towers. If you want pics of mine and how it was done I can take some and send them along.
If you get time some pics of your setup would be awesome. Did u get better articulation from the 250 towers? How much longer are they? Thanks.
 
Here are some photos of mine. I confess I did not take this on myself and I had no one to help me and was in the middle of selling a house. Anyway, I had Poor Wally do mine and as always he rocked it. I did get more articulation but did not measure it. The rig definitely is way more fun to drive at this point. Good luck. Again, I used parts out of an FJ-60 and performed all of the changes the others have talked about. I used new steering arms and the collapsible column as well. I wanted to keep the original steering wheel as I think it looks cool on the rig.

Power Steering Pump-1.jpg


Power Stering Shock Drag Link -3.jpg


Power Stering Shock Tower-2.jpg
 
Wow, thanks for all this info guys.
Is it possible to spin the pitman arm 180 then simply swap the hoses round or will it not work?
If not I will source a 60 or 80 unit.


That will take some getting used to and deter anyone from stealing it. .....You'll have to turn the wheel right to go left
 
Tell me if wrong.
If I turn the 70 pitman arm round 180 it will be facing forward but driving opposite to factory. If I switch p/'s hoses over it will work will it not?
 
Switching hoses doesn't do anything but put high pressure fluid into the return port on the steering box , which would be a bad idea . The gears within the box determine which way the pitman arm faces and moves through it's arc . It's the same puzzle as with rear end gears - swap that diff chunk upside down and you'll have 4 speeds in reverse , one forward...
Sarge
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom