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Lots of play in my ‘68 power steering and seeing some tempting upgrade options from Jeep GC to Monte Carlo SS boxes. Have any of you made the leap and have suggestions for or against?
I have a steering gearbox from a 86 442. You can use a 3rd gen f body gearbox, the turning radius isn’t a good as the A body. You will need to transfer the pitman arm, and use a rag joint from a older square body GM truck. Then the minor hassle of adapting the SAE hoses to the metric O-ring the later gearbox uses. It’s a great modification, it gets rid of the “powerful steering” and replaces it with power steering with some road feel.
Sounds like you guys are pretty happy with the mod. I’m in the middle of a motor swap so now is the time. Is one of the options easiest? If I’m changing from oem I don’t care if it’s a Jeep, GM or other. RandyS I am also in the Springs. Will hit you up if I need the adapters - are they for Jeep GC only or will they work with other steering boxes?
Sounds like you guys are pretty happy with the mod. I’m in the middle of a motor swap so now is the time. Is one of the options easiest? If I’m changing from oem I don’t care if it’s a Jeep, GM or other. RandyS I am also in the Springs. Will hit you up if I need the adapters - are they for Jeep GC only or will they work with other steering boxes?
Wow, small world. As far as I know, they are specifically for the Jeep box.
GM only used two types of high pressure hydraulic connectors for the longest time (probably still currently, but I'm not familiar with their stuff in the last 20 years).
Pre-metric used flare fittings.
Metric used o-ring fittings.
Someone (Lee?) figured out a long time ago that you can smash a wedge shaped washer (aka flare adapter) inside a metric female fitting, and the sizes and threads are close enough that a flare male will seal on it.
So it's not specific to the Jeep box. It's any GM box, or pump, with metric o-ring fittings.
So it's not specific to the Jeep box. It's any GM box, or pump, with metric o-ring fittings.
^^^THIS. It's a Saginaw steering box. Doesn't matter if it's in a Chevy, a Jeep, or a Chrysler. As noted, Saginaw changed from the inverted flare to the o-ring seal in the late 70s. The flare nut threads are the same, so all you need to do is install the flare adapters in the inlet and outlet ports. I did this on the Monte SS box I put in my 67 Delta. FYI, Speedway Motors sells the adapters for a lot less than Lee.
Found an eBay seller ‘deadjeeps’ that sells a lot of gearboxes and such. He has a ‘ZJ’ box for 93-98 JGC listed and I didn’t see ZJ on my list of codes to use for GM A body. I just messaged the seller and he said he gets that question all the time and is pretty sure the ZJ box will not work for that application. I’m a little confused as I don’t understand why there could be a code that won’t work but for now I’ll hold off on that particular box
IIRC, there was a design break between 96 and 97 on the JGC steering. At least, ACDelco changed part numbers there. There is an issue with 97/98 boxes...... I ended up with one and it had the limited turning angle. Not sure if that was actually part of the design, or the normal "rebuilder grabbed the wrong piece out of the pile" problem.
I did the grand Cherokee swap in my 67. Looks exactly like the original as Joe already stated it is a saginaw box so basically the same thing externally. Makes the car drive so much better. with the Lee adapters, used gear purchase and new rag joint the entire swap cost me just about $90. Best money I have spent on my car by far.
Picked up JGC box off craigslist, prescribed rag Joint (Dorman 31011), and Lee couplers. Rag Joint interferes with frame. I’m wondering if there were shims or washers in between the frame and steering box and I just didn’t notice or remember when I took the original box off a few months ago. Anyone recall?
No washers, no interference on my '72.
Hard to tell what's going on in the picture. Is the ragjoint actually touching the frame? It should be very close, but not actually touching.
The steering box is already installed and I am trying to install the rag joint. However, the frame interferes with the rag joint just enough that I can’t slip it on.
As it turns out the frame is recessed just enough to accommodate the rag Joint when it is already installed. Once I took the steering box back off and installed rag Joint off vehicle it slid into place.
I too am interested in the jgc swap - can I just order a 95 jgc steering gear from Rockauto to do the swap? Or is there something more complicated than that going on?
Just so everyone knows, the later metric and early imperial threads are NOT the same. Yeah, they say you can use your standard hoses tightened into the metric threads and that it will form new threads. Cough, cough... Yeah, been there, stripped them out and never doing that again. Better to use full adapters, not just seats. Best yet, use an imperial gear box with quick ratio gears added. Lares can do it, and it makes it plug and play.
Just so everyone knows, the later metric and early imperial threads are NOT the same. Yeah, they say you can use your standard hoses tightened into the metric threads and that it will form new threads. Cough, cough... Yeah, been there, stripped them out and never doing that again. Better to use full adapters, not just seats. Best yet, use an imperial gear box with quick ratio gears added. Lares can do it, and it makes it plug and play.
So if I were to use the 95 jgc box with the s10 rag joint - and the Lee adapter - where could I get the hose with the correct threads (assuming metric at gear and sae at pump?) am I thinking correctly?
I think olds used metric fittings in the eighties. I think you could use the pump fitting and hoses off one of those on your pump.
So if I ordered a 1980 cutlass power steering hose kit - I could swap one end with mine to have the sae and use the other ends new metric? From what I understand the low pressure side is no big deal just hose clamps etc - but the high pressure hose ... is there anything I need to know on swapping out an end? Or is it pretty straight forward obvious stuff?
The previous owner of my 442 had replaced the original box with a budget Lares box. The budget box was a metric box and had adapters screwed into the ports. Not sure if it came from Lares that way, or if the previous owner installed. But, they must be available somewhere. I removed this steering box and installed a Lares 972 box. It costs an extra $40 over the budget box, but it's plug and play.
From RockAuto:
LARES 972 Remanufactured; 4 Bolt Housing
Power Gear; 10:1 Fast Ratio; Direct bolt in, No changes required (Only 1 Remaining - Return and Rebuild Service available for larger quantities)
Note that you can also send your original box to Lares and have it rebuilt with Iroc-Z 10:1 components. That's what I did for my '70 Chevy. Works awesome. One of the best upgrades I made to the car.
