Power steering conversion- Pitman question HELP

[ploeger_miles]

I have a 71 F250 2WD built in 4/71. I have the 360 engine. It currently has manual steering and I want to install power steering on it. I have read the "how to install power steering" and steering linkage tech articles all the way through about 10 times and these were definately EXTREMELY HELPFUL but there are a couple of things that i feel are not covered in detail in these articles. I understand that the bendix power box has its own style of pitman arm. I also understand that the ford/saginaw power box can have 2 different pitman arms and tie rod setups depending on weather the truck was built before or after serial# M00000 of 71. Mine is before this so it is the older style. What I want to know is will my 71 manual steer pitman arm work with the ford/saginaw power box? Does the rest of the steering linkage (tie rods) differ between power or manual steering? How about the rag joint- are these the same for power vs. manual? Also- there is not much detail on the harmonic balancer and pulley change-out. I have dealer add-on A/C so my truck has an extra pulley bolted on to the original pulley. I have an extra 390 engine sitting around out of a 74 f350 with P/S that appears to have the correct harmonic balancer/main pulley, pump, and brackets. Both engines have the 3 bolt hole style pulleys and the 74 pulley appears to have the groove in the right place to match up with the p/s pump. Is there any reason why this harmonic balancer/ main pulley wouldn't fit my 360? Everything looks identical to me except the extra groove for the power steering which is exactly what I want. Thanks in advance guys.

[HIO Silver]

I have a 71 F250 2WD built in 4/71. I have the 360 engine. It currently has manual steering and I want to install power steering on it. I have read the "how to install power steering" and steering linkage tech articles all the way through about 10 times and these were definately EXTREMELY HELPFUL but there are a couple of things that i feel are not covered in detail in these articles. I understand that the bendix power box has its own style of pitman arm. I also understand that the ford/saginaw power box can have 2 different pitman arms and tie rod setups depending on weather the truck was built before or after serial# M00000 of 71. Mine is before this so it is the older style.

What I want to know is will my 71 manual steer pitman arm work with the ford/saginaw power box?

No. You need a PS-specific pitman arm because it is angled differently.

Does the rest of the steering linkage (tie rods) differ between power or manual steering? How about the rag joint- are these the same for power vs. manual?

Grab a catalog and compare tie rod, drag link, and rag joint PNs between manual and power steering applications.

Also- there is not much detail on the harmonic balancer and pulley change-out. I have dealer add-on A/C so my truck has an extra pulley bolted on to the original pulley.. I have an extra 390 engine sitting around out of a 74 f350 with P/S that appears to have the correct harmonic balancer/main pulley, pump, and brackets. Both engines have the 3 bolt hole style pulleys and the 74 pulley appears to have the groove in the right place to match up with the p/s pump. Is there any reason why this harmonic balancer/ main pulley wouldn't fit my 360? Everything looks identical to me except the extra groove for the power steering which is exactly what I want. Thanks in advance guys.

Yes. 390s and 360s are identically balanced and externally identical. Swap the external dress at will.

[ploeger_miles]

Thanks. I don't know what I would do without this forum. So I have to get a Pitman arm for the Saginaw box that is before mid 71. The salvage yard was trying to sell me a gearbox out of a 76. As far as I understand the 76 box will fit fine but I would have to change the pitman arm right? I will get a hold of a parts book and check on the tie rods. The last time I looked at one of these parts books it seemed extremely confusing because they lumped all of the econoline vans and all of the trucks including the big trucks into one humongous manual. This makes it difficult to find anything but I will see what I can dig up. I will plan on using the 390 harmonic balancer/main pulley, pump and brackets. Thanks again.

[ploeger_miles]

So I did some digging in the parts catalog. As far as I can see the tie rods are the same for manual and power. It did not mention power or manual so I am assuming they are the same. I also looked up the pitman arm and it is indeed different for power vs. manual. The rag joint has the illustration # 3A525 but when I go to the text file to look it up it skips this number. I have the same problem with the steering gear, it has the illustration # 3504 but this is also not in the text file. Where would I go to look up applications for these items if they aren't in there?

[sargentrs]

When I have these kinds of questions, I go to RockAuto.com's catalog (the HTML version). You can easily zip through the various years and components and see if the other manufacturer's offer the same part numbers for the different years/options. Also, if you click on the part numbers, a window will pop up for the different models it's for. Definitely not a definitive source but gives you a real good idea or basis to work with.

[ploeger_miles]

Well, I guess I will just go ahead and get what I need from the junkyard and start putting it in and deal with any issues as they arise. I will let you know how it all turns out. Thanks guys.

[ploeger_miles]

One other question- Will I have to drill holes in the frame to mount the saginaw power box or are these holes already there? If I do have to drill them how should I go about lining everything up to get the holes marked?

[sargentrs]

If you had a Saginaw manual box, the holes should line up. At least mine did. I pulled off the manual box and the p/s box bolted right in with no modification.

[ploeger_miles]

Good deal. That is what I wanted to hear. I guess I'm not sure what box is in there now. It is whatever ford used for the manual box for 1971. (4/71 build date)

[sargentrs]

Good deal. That is what I wanted to hear. I guess I'm not sure what box is in there now. It is whatever ford used for the manual box for 1971. (4/71 build date)

It should be the Saginaw box. Ford phased out the Bendix box in '69.

[BigFoot]

HI!
I just yesterday did a PS MS swap. My 71 PS had the old setup and my 72 MS had the new set up. I just took everything from the 71 and put it into the 72. That included: Steering wheel, Column, steering shaft, firewall bracket, rag joint, power steering box, PS pump, PS bracket, Belt, crank pulley, Tie rods, drag link, pitman arm. I left the pitman arms on the respective boxes. Everything went great except i need to align it now. literally take everything. If you have a hard time with removing ball joints, Just get your sledge hammer and strike the part the ball joint is pressed into. It'll pop right out with a few strong hits.

And Sargentrs is correct, the bendix box was long gone by the time our 71's were built.

[ploeger_miles]

So now I am confused. I thought when someone referred to the "saginaw" and "bendix" boxes they were referring to power steering boxes. My truck has manual steering and I am converting it to power steering. So there is also a saginaw manual and a bendix manual used the same respective time periods as the power boxes? I posted a parts wanted ad on this site today asking for a correct power steering pitman arm for the Pre- late 1971 trucks today. Hopefully someone on here has one for me as the 76 steering box that I was able to find has the newer style pitman arm. Unfortunately my local salvage yard does not have any 71 or older trucks that have power steering. I have heard that I could just use the tie rods from the 76 but I do not want to do this. I want my truck to have the exact parts that it would have had if it would have come with power steering from the factory. I want there to be no evidence that it was ever changed, and I also want to be able to use the listings at the autoparts stores and still have them be correct for my truck. If you start mixing and matching mismatched parts you end up with a congloberation that no one can figure out what parts fit it down the road.

[ploeger_miles]

So I have another question-

So it sounds like the 4 speed column housing (which is what I have) is already the correct length for saginaw power steering and all I would have to do is just change out the shaft. My question is will a shaft work out of a 73 to 79 column? I know the 73-79 column will work as a whole but I would like to keep the older style so I don't have the hazard switch sticking out that doesn't do anything. Has anyone ever tried this? Also is there any difference between an automatic, 3spd, or 4spd power steering shaft? I am having troubles locating a 71 or 72 power shaft so I was thinking this could broaden the search a little but still get what I wanted.