Steering Gearbox Swap

OK, the problems with the steering and exhaust situation are nearing resolution.  I removed the existing power steering gearbox and pitman arm to make way for the new manual steering gearbox.  I am switching the truck over to manual because I have plans to install an electric power steering system at some point in the future and you need a manual gearbox for that.  Its really cool technology and it comes factory on most new vehicles instead of the old school hydraulic systems.  It reduces weight from the vehicle and it facilitates modern electronic control of everything.  Best of all, there is no fuel/horsepower drain from your engine when the power steering is not working, unlike hydraulic pumps that run all the time on an engine pulley. 

I gave everything a once-over with some degreaser and took it up to the auto parts store to pick up the new gearbox.  The manual unit is approximately half the size and weight of the power steering box and has identical mounting and shaft locations.  The only difference is that the output shaft on the new gearbox is slightly larger than the old one, which means that I need to find an identically shaped pitman arm that has a different shaft orifice.  After 1.5 days of internet research, it turns out that the power gearbox came factory on trucks, vans, and Broncos for ~20 years, but never on mid-seventies cars, which is where my front clip came from.  Interestingly, the new manual steering gearbox was put into 90's base model trucks and vans, but it has the same size and configuration output shaft as the factory mid-seventies car power gearboxes that originally matched my front clip.  Ask me how I know all of this...?  Good old fashioned catalogs.  Anyway, the short version is that I'm bolting a ~90s model manual steering gearbox up to a 70's power steering linkage.  Good times.

Before removal:

 Removing the steering linkage from the pitman arm.  Any day you get to hit something with a big hammer is a good day. 

 The steering coupler needed some encouragement to come off the gearbox input shaft.

 That long bolt extending into the frame of the vehicle is not normally supposed to be there.  It is an adapter made by the original builders/installers of this chassis to make the gearbox work.  I looked at this a long time and decided to forget about how silly this looks and just fit up the new manual gearbox the same way.

 There were cobwebs and other unidentified substances behind the old gearbox.

 We are half way there!

 Old pitman arm:

 Old gearbox on the left and new one on the right.  Dropping weight makes the truck go faster.  :o)

 New gearbox bolted on hand tight to check the fit-up.  Looks good!

 The old pitman arm and new gearbox combo line up as they should.  I'll pick up a new pitman arm soon and get everything bolted up tight right after applying some paint to the truck frame.