Brahma's Saginaw/FJ60 Power Steering Conversion - Page 7

corsair23 · #61 07-14-2009, 03:04 PM

You purists!!

subzali · #62 07-24-2009, 05:02 PM

today I had some good Cruiser love time in preparation for the Ghost Town Run and got a couple little things fixed:
-when I moved my headlight switch when I put in a tach I suddenly lost my instrument cluster lights. Oh great. Well today I found out that it was just the set screw on the knob wasn't seated properly, so I had turned the knob so the lights were off and wasn't able to spin it back because the knob was just spinning on the shaft. That was simple.
-so I finished wiring in the backlight for the tach so now I can see rpms at night!

-somehow I lost the clamp bolt for the base of the steering column inside the truck, so my keyswitch/turn signals could spin around. Got a bolt and nut and got that bolted down solid.
-Since that was taken care of my newfound turn signal problems went away - I guess the force of the the switch going up and down twisted the column enough to keep them from engaging or something.
-While switching out my turn signal/keyswitch to my new column I had taken the turn signal lever cover thing off for the regular/high beam switch and the detent ball fell out. I was able to get it put back together but must have done something wrong because the detent wasn't doing its job properly and my lights wanted to be in the bright position all the time and I had to hold the lever back if I was driving at night to keep from blinding people. After some finagling with it today I got it put back together properly so the detent does what it's supposed to and my switch works amazingly much better than before!

-Got my steering wheel centered
-topped of my t-case
-Adjusted my brake pedal height/freeplay and took care of the problem of having the brake lights stay on after releasing the pedal (I hope)

So little by little buttoning everything up! I'm excited to get the truck out on a long-distance drive!

Dr. Schlegs · #63 07-26-2009, 01:00 AM

RicardoJM and Subzila,

I would like to talk to you two about the conversation. Ricardo and I discussed this a little bit at the last meeting, but it would be nice to compare the two set-ups. I have heard of this conversation being done several ways and just want to get the best one for my '72.

subzali · #64 07-26-2009, 08:19 PM

Sure! Ricardo's is a minitruck conversion on a F engine, mine is a Saginaw/FJ60 conversion on a 2F engine. The minitruck is a very popular conversion because it's so easy! A full Saginaw conversion is also very popular because of the extra boost desired for tires larger than about 35". Mine is using the Saginaw pump but I liked the design/placement/linkage configuration of the FJ60 steering box better so that's what I went with! You can start a new thread or keep posting to either one of ours with questions!

subzali · #65 07-26-2009, 09:09 PM

Had a couple questions from MUD today so I thought I would copy my response:

Quote:

Originally Posted by subzali

Hey Dan, I replied below. It would be awesome to see your truck up here sometime (either one!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanS HJ-45

Matt:

Excellent writeup in the RS section.

Couple of questions...
1)How do you like it? Any funny steering issues like bump steer? I absolutely love it! Still working on belt tension, I get some squeals once in a while. No bump steer that I can tell (though I have never experienced it before so I'm not sure what to look for) - I kept the drag link as parallel as possible to the tie rod as I could (it's at least as parallel as factory) so I can't imagine why I would have any problems...
2)Could you look at this thread http://forum.ih8mud.com/diesel-tech-...bo-h55f-6.html and let me know how the position of the steering box on yours compares to mine? They look pretty close to me. I would suggest having the small end of the pitman arm centered under the big hole in the frame if your intermediate shaft allows for it, or even a small bit forward. If you check my thread you'll see where I had to cut into the inner fender a small bit to allow my intermediate shaft u-joint to have full rotation. If your intermediate shaft is using a smaller u-joint then I would keep it where you're at, looks about the same as mine.
3)Anything you'd do differently? Mine is pretty much the exact same thing, so I figured I'd ask someone who had recently done the same thing to see if there was anything I should do differently. I would either shorten the FJ55 steering column 1 1/2" or move the seats back. I just got back from a road trip where we were doing light 4-wheeling from 10-4 or so plus another 2 1/2 hours of driving and my arms are pretty tired, mostly I think because the wheel is too close to me so I'm holding my arms up just a tad. The other thing I would NOT do is combine the 70 series TRE at the pitman arm to the 70 series drag link tube to the FJ40 TRE at the tie rod. Way too expensive for what you get. I would have a custom tube made to connect a 60 series TRE at the pitman arm to an FJ40 TRE at the tie rod (basically they will take a tube and thread one end left handed for the 60 end and thread the other end right handed for the 40 end). Also pay attention to the rod end you use at the tie rod. The stud has to be pretty long because the boss on the rod for the drag link to plug into is pretty thick, thicker (I found out) than the steering arm. If you notice in my thread I used the driver (left) side FJ40 tie rod end for my drag link-to-tie rod connection. The stud is ALMOST too short to work, but it does work. If you find a better solution (Wayne mentioned 79+ components - that sounds like it will work in theory) then I will probably switch over to that just to be on the safe side.

Hope that helps!

The big thing that his thread brought out is that Wayne (crushers) suggested (based on lowenbrau's advice) to use a 79+ drag link end at the tie rod. To me this makes sense because the threaded part will be the larger diameter just like the 60 and 70 series, but (hopefully) it will have the smaller diameter tapered stud to connect to the FJ40 tie rod. The other cool thing is that even though the driver side FJ40 tie rod end (at the steering arm) works fine for that connection as well, the stud is just a hair on the short side (as far as length is concerned), because the hole in the steering arm is shorter than the hole in the tie rod, so the tapered stud is designed to be a different length for those two applications. However, looking at SOR.com they show the same part number up until 1984 for the 40 series, so it looks like that didn't change even though some of the other front-end components did (like the large pattern steering knuckles, Aisin hubs and short birfields). The 60 one won't work because the rebuildable end is too long to use the 70 series drag link tube. So there you have it. I hope you're thoroughly confused now. I think I am.

Basically I will hold my breath and see if his works ok, and if his guinea pig experiment works out I'll cough up the $40 or $70 to get another end to replace the one I have.

PabloCruise · #66 07-27-2009, 11:26 AM

Thanks Matt.

I still have a little bit of shimmy on the 40 (I adjusted the box) so I think I am going to replace TRE's all the way around.

I want to put 60 ends at both ends of the "drag link" (relay rod in my mind), get custom tube relay rod made and use a tapered reamer on the pass side 40 TRE.

I'll keep you posted!

subzali · #67 07-27-2009, 02:09 PM

that sounds like probably the best solution TJ, especially since those ends are rebuildable and the parts are cheaper than replacing the whole thing. Sounds like it will work!

That's probably what I will end up doing someday after I'm done trying to figure out all the options (the '79+ thing still has me puzzled) and my TREs are worn out.

subzali · #68 08-30-2009, 12:00 PM

So as Treeroot warned me my pump was groaning yesterday on Argentine Pass - what is the cause of that and what can I do to make it stop. Is the fluid getting too hot and the pump is cavitating?

rover67 · #69 08-30-2009, 01:15 PM

My saginaw pump with FJ60 steering box would start to groan when it got hot, so I added a tranny cooler to the return line and it seems to have cured it. I don't know if that would help yours though.. It'd only do it after several hours of "hard" wheeling.

subzali · #70 12-05-2009, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by treerootCO

I think I have the same JT mount. I checked mine today and the clearance is different. Not sure why...

Here is an old pic:

So Treeroot are you using a wide belt on the narrow groove p/s pulley?