steering box upgrade

[kensm715]

my m715 has a manual box so i am lookin for an upgrade i've seen many different options ie s10 box j20 boxes astro van boxes

[FSJ Guy]

AFAIK, a standard FSJ power steering box will work.

[kensm715]

will it hold up to 42" rubber, wheeling and crossover steering ?

[Blazer3664]

Yep, they are over assisted on the power side from the factory IMHO, that luxo SUV soft steering. When mine was still on 31"s you could 1 finger steer lock to lock sitting still.

With 42" tires you might look into drilling and tapping it for an assist cylinder.
If you have ever dropped the front tire in a rut/crevice and had the steering wheel ripped out of your hands. ................ it can hurt if it catches a thumb.
Assist cylinder will stop that from happening, and turn those 42" tires at a dead stop no prob.

Not to hard to do, 2 hoses and a cylinder in place of steering stabilizer. The parts (cylinder + hoses, and a little welding to mod/reinforce the brackets) can be had for just under $200.



Jim

[kensm715]

thanks thats what i have been hearin on pirate although i've never had that problem with my power wagon on 44's LOL but i wanted some real world experience on it. Guess ill start lookin my local u pull it they have a couple chiefs and a couple j trucks so i guess i know where to get them.

[Blazer3664]

On a side note, most of the ones I have read about swapping them out are after faster/tighter steering.

They are a standard Saginaw type box, no real reliability problems that I am aware of, just that a lot of used ones are high mileage 30+yr old parts. Last I checked you could still get a re-man from the parts shops(special order of course).

Jim

[kensm715]

thanks Jim ya got a build thread on your rig ?

[Tad]

Get a mid-late '70's J20 box if you can find one.
3.5" bore as opposed to the 3" wag/chero/J10 bore.



Bolts up the same and uses the same pitman arm.
Some discussion over the years about the input spline count/size but mine went in (70 frame, 85 steering column) just fine, input spline differences can be solved with the correct rag joint.

Here's the catch:
J20 boxes originally were all 4 tab boxes but over the years they have been substituting the wag/chero/J10 boxes, it took me 3 times for my McParts place to come up with the 4 tab 3.5" bore box.
Good news is they were also used on big GM cars like the Old's Toranado, Big Buick wagons and the Caddy commercial chassis hearse rigs, so they are out there.

Also:
From just some quick image surfing it looks like the M715 frame mount is the same as my '70 wag version.
Sort of inferior design, this is what mine looked like when I swapped in the J20 box.



I was able to fix that but check yours carefully.

[kensm715]

very cool Tad thanks. Did you add the 4 bolt to the to the frame? I'm workin on tryin to figure out a way to do it with a dummy 4 bolt box a friend gave my seems like it should help.

[Tad]

Sort of.
It always bothered me having that missing bolt so what I did was get a long bolt and two nuts.
I threaded one nut onto the bolt all the way then threaded it in to the tab from the engine side, once it was thru I put the 2nd nut on the other side and ran the bolt all the way up against the mount.
I then welded the bolt to the frame mount area and adjusted the two nuts to secure that 4th mounting point.
Not exactly proper and I will have to cut the bolt to remove the box but my rig will probably rust away before the box goes bad.
I also have a steering box brace that connects to the passenger side that acts as a 5th mounting point.



EDIT:
I should add this just for future reference.
I had an S10 box that was ready to go in, 3 tab box.
The tab that is missing on the S10 box is not the one where our older rigs do not have a 4th mounting point.
It's missing the other top tab leaving us with just the 2 bottom ones.
No bueno for me.
S10 box got sold and the hunt for the 4 tab J20 box was on.

[Blazer3664]

No build thread on mine , yet, hopefully by the end of next summer I will have everything together enough to do one.

A steering box brace like Tad showed is on my short list as well. I can get pretty rough with my stuff when I go play.

Jim

[kensm715]

i'm thinkin of buildin a steering box stabilizer similar to whats on my dodge http://dodgeramsteeringstabilizer.com/

[jeeplifeeee]

I modified one of these and it works great http://www.custom-diesel.com/cummins/do ... stabilizer you guys should check it out if you need help with the modifications just let me know !