JF

I finally got around to dropping the engine in this past week. The
driver side header practically sits on the steering box and when you
turn left the pitman arm hits the header tube and stops short of full
travel. The car originally had a 302 with power steering. I've removed
all the power steering and used the adapter in the linkage instead of
changing everything over.
Would a standard box and pitman arm help in this situation? Or just
remember i won't be able to turn as sharp to the left.
JF

one80out@hotmail.com

JF wrote:
> I finally got around to dropping the engine in this past week. The
> driver side header practically sits on the steering box and when you
> turn left the pitman arm hits the header tube and stops short of full

> travel. The car originally had a 302 with power steering. I've
removed
> all the power steering and used the adapter in the linkage instead of

> changing everything over.
> Would a standard box and pitman arm help in this situation? Or just
> remember i won't be able to turn as sharp to the left.

The manual steering gear and the power steering gear have the same
external dimensions and the output shaft is in the same place. The
manual steering Pitman arm is shorter than the power one. I don't know
by how much, but I'd guess somewhere around a half inch. If you change
over you need to do the idler arm too.

It would not be a good idea to let your headers act as the stop for
left turns. If you decide to live with this prob, it would be better
to drill and tap a whole through the steering stop on the strut rod and
use a bolt with a lock nut for the stop. It would be even better to
get pipes that fit, possibly shorties.

180 Out