Idiot or genius? You tell me. 60 PS conversion w tacoma parts (2 Viewers)

[youngmanchego]

I’m doing a PS conversion on my 78’ 40 without cutting the stock column. This vintage has a rag joint to connect the column to the manual steering box (see photo). It turns out an early 2000s ish tacoma lower steering shaft have, from what I can tell (confirming in person this afternoon), the same rag joint.

My plan is to use the rag-joint end w the spline yoke as the output on the steering column. From there I’ll get a column that will reach out to the new 60 power steering box, basically the same spot as most other 60 conversions.

I haven’t found any info on anyone else doing this. Idk if it’s nutty and I’m missing something obvious, but assuming the dimensions are right which prelim research says is true, this should work. No?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Cheers,

Sawyer

 

[Living in the Past]

Have never done a 60 series power steering conversion. But I know the FJ40 steering shaft is anchored only at the steering wheel. Only a felt seal at the firewall. The half of column at the rag joint is welded no splines. The other end of the rag joint is splines and slips directly to the steering box. Believe other than 40 series steering column is secured by a bearing at the firewall. Even if the column was splined believe you would want the shaft anchored at the firewall.

 

[youngmanchego]

Have never done a 60 series power steering conversion. But I know the FJ40 steering shaft is anchored only at the steering wheel. Only a felt seal at the firewall. The half of column at the rag joint is welded no splines. The other end of the rag joint is splines and slips directly to the steering box. Believe other than 40 series steering column is secured by a bearing at the firewall. Even if the column was splined believe you would want the shaft anchored at the firewall.

Hmm is this not the proper anchoring?

 

[mattressking]

Why not just use a minitruck/40 series power steering pump and make it really easy to install? 60 pump requires a lot more work.

 

[youngmanchego]

Why not just use a minitruck/40 series power steering pump and make it really easy to install? 60 pump requires a lot more work.

For the additional power… and I already dropped $400 on a box and pump

 

[Living in the Past]

Hmm is this not the proper anchoring?

View attachment 3474743

View attachment 3474744

Those four bolts secure the column housing to the bracket that bolts to the firewall. The shaft itself is only anchored high at the steering wheel it free floats in the tube. There is only a felt seal at the firewall. The rag joint is clamped directly to the steering box. That limits the flex in the shaft.your talking adding at least. One U joint in the middle. That still doesn't fix the lack of spline on the steering shaft.

 

[cruisermatt]

I think this may be one of those times where you need to take it apart yourself and you'll understand what @Living in the Past is trying to describe. Yes you need to add some sort of bearing to the steering column shaft itself. The rag joint is irrelevant to that. Usually that gets cut off to slide a bearing over the shaft, I guess you could disassemble the shaft and slide it in spline-first though if you absolutely wanted to keep a rag joint, not sure why you would want to do that though.

 

[youngmanchego]

Those four bolts secure the column housing to the bracket that bolts to the firewall. The shaft itself is only anchored high at the steering wheel it free floats in the tube. There is only a felt seal at the firewall. The rag joint is clamped directly to the steering box. That limits the flex in the shaft.your talking adding at least. One U joint in the middle. That still doesn't fix the lack of spline on the steering shaft.

Ah okay. What if I secured it at the bottom of the fire wall with a bearing? Say like what this guy did. I just picked up the part from John Dear. That would seem to solve the securing problem. I can just slide it down from the spline side to exit on the firewall, no?

 

[cruisermatt]

Correct, that is what you need to do.

 

[matzell]

Take the column off and apart, install bearing. I think it is the same a lawnmower wheel bearing, I have bought them off Amazon. Something like 1/2 ID 1: od. You can measure them once apart. Vendors here on mud sell them and or a bushing to make them work. Do a little searching and you will find it.

 

[matzell]

Take the column off and apart, install bearing. I think it is the same a lawnmower wheel bearing, I have bought them off Amazon. Something like 1/2 ID 1: od. You can measure them once apart. Vendors here on mud sell them and or a bushing to make them work. Do a little searching and you will find it.

Quick search found this

Cruiser Outfitters

$12 each

 

[youngmanchego]

Quick search found this

Cruiser Outfitters

$12 each

Hugely helpful, thank you. I got ahold of the bearing already but I wasn’t quite sure what was needed to hold it in place. Turns out the existing fire wall plate will keep it snug. Cheers!

 

[ijonesinsp]

I think this may be one of those times where you need to take it apart yourself and you'll understand what @Living in the Past is trying to describe. Yes you need to add some sort of bearing to the steering column shaft itself. The rag joint is irrelevant to that. Usually that gets cut off to slide a bearing over the shaft, I guess you could disassemble the shaft and slide it in spline-first though if you absolutely wanted to keep a rag joint, not sure why you would want to do that though.

Here are a couple pictures of the bearing you would put in place for a Saginaw swap and how the steering shaft looks.

 

[youngmanchego]

Here are a couple pictures of the bearing you would put in place for a Saginaw swap and how the steering shaft looks.
View attachment 3475285View attachment 3475286View attachment 3475293

View attachment 3475290

Beautiful setup, thanks for the pics

 

[WildernessRimFab]

Since you aren't keeping the steering stock, you might as well add a bearing and machine a 3/4"DD pattern into the stock shaft.
There are lots of options for steering shafts and Joints in the 3/4" DD interface.

 

[youngmanchego]

Since you aren't keeping the steering stock, you might as well add a bearing and machine a 3/4"DD pattern into the stock shaft.
There are lots of options for steering shafts and Joints in the 3/4" DD interface.

I guess my thinking was if I could keep from cutting the stock column I’d like to. I don’t see why a rag-to-u joint would be an issue but I’m also a noob- I simply don’t know. From there it would just be like all the setups above. U-joint to rod to u joint to box up behind the bib

 

[pb4ugo]

So you want to use the rag joint then the ujoint? Why? The rag joint is sort of flexible. It sounds like it would be a jumbled mess.

 

[youngmanchego]

So you want to use the rag joint then the ujoint? Why? The rag joint is sort of flexible. It sounds like it would be a jumbled mess.

There is a Toyota Tacoma part that’s a rag-joint-to-u joint. I’m checking it out tomorrow, but from what I’ve gleaned it’s an exact fit to the rag-joint on the column. It would be the silver section w the matte black disc in the photo below.

I figure why cut something if I don’t need to… and I can’t weld to save my life (literally in this case) though Ik I’ll need something fabbed to instal the PS gearbox up front.

 

[ijonesinsp]

No need to weld it if you can’t or don’t feel confident. You cut off your rag joint flange and machine or carefully grind two flats on your shaft to fit a Borgeson steering joint. They come in all flavors. You should be able to find one with a 3/4” DD on one end and the correct spline configuration on the other.

 

[pb4ugo]

Thats an interesting part. In the stk application, does the splined end connect to the tacoma box? Keep in mind your steering shaft will be unsupported. It looks like there's going to be a lot of flex because how the ujoint is attached to the rubber part of the rag joint. It looks like the position of the steering ujoint is going to be low. Most folks cut the rag shaft end off a little closer to the firewall to get a good angle to the box. I think your going to have to weld to install the box. Your also going to have to deal with the shock tower. This will be interesting.