steering box

Has anyone ever upgraded the steering box on an econoline to something modern or done anything to beef them up. I recently talked to a steering guru and he said that the old econoline steering boxes are vastly under sized. Since i have converted my van to 4x4 i inherited some bump steer. In the conversion i beefed up all of the steering linkage and even put a new to me steering column/steering box. So i'm pretty sure that the problem is the steering box any suggestions. Thanks you guys

I put rack n pinion on mine. With 31x10.5x15 tires, it works like a charm.

BUMP STEER is as old as the hills and ESPECIALLY for a 4whl drive.  Bump steer means that when you hit a bump, the vehicle wants to turn for you, even if you dont want it to. Its caused by incorrect suspension geometry and not a bad steering box. 
 Its so common and especially with 4whl drives because of altering the suspension.  Specifically the relationship of the pitman arm ball joint height to the steering arm ball joint height.  It has nothing to do with anything else, such as vehicle height to the ground or anything else, its ALL about the length of the arc when the axle moves upwards or downwards.
  The straighter the arc the less travel, meaning the least amount of INCREASE in length. IE: arc.
  The farther the arc then there is an increase in the length of the drag link arm travel, meaning as the suspension travels it increases the distance and then does the steering for you.
  In 4whl drives they make blocks or different steering arms to lower or raise the height of the steering arm ball joint in order to lesson the arc of travel. That gets the suspension geometry back to original travel and no more bump steer.  I have recomended for many years now an EXCELLENT book that explains any and all of it. It also goes into bending steering arms which is a last resort but still okay.
  On mine, I recut the ball joint taper from the factory location on ours from under the steering arm to now sitting on top of the steering arm. At the same time I made an adjustable drag link. Its real common on 4whl drives as they are normally lifted which lowers the steering arm height downwards from the stock higher height and relationship to the pitman arm...
  The name of the book is HOW TO MAKE YOUR CAR HANDLE,, by Fred Puhn, and published by HPBOOKS----46  He goes into disc brakes, any kind of suspension you can think of as well as hydraulic multiplication and so on.
  Also, here is some info I came up with a long time ago for the special reamers as well as some special taper adapters and adapter studs and so on.
vic

Old school, Is it common to have bump steer if you lower the front end by de-arching the leaf springs?? or could this be caused by weak leaf springs??

Yep,,,,  same reason,,, also common.  Again, its the relationship of the pitman arm ball joint to the steering arm ball joint.  Think of the drag link as a straight line pivoting from the pitman arm. The more the angle the longer the amount of travel. The longer the travel the longer its arc of travel is. That increased travel acually increases the drag length length which is what does the steering for you in a bump steer. Its kinda hard to explain, but once you understand the idea it makes perfect sense. Again the book is invaluable for it as well as many other issues...
vic

Hey old school I have heard of that kind of bump steer caused by a steep angle in the drag link. But i do not have any angle in my drag link. The steering arm and the pitman arm are of of other heavy duty lifted trucks and such. One is off of a dodge 3/4 ton truck and the other is off of a 88 chevy blazer that has 4 in lift. So I have also heard that bump steer can be caused by slop/play in the entire steering system. I know that my pitman arm and the drag link joint has some slop/play in it and am talking to a guy about having a custom drag link made. I also know that all the steering boxes I have put in this vehicle have either been loose or loosened up over time. Have you heard of bump steer caused by this slop/slack and if so have you or any one for that matter ever put a beefy new style steering box in one of these bad boys??

And Dan do you have any pics of that rack and pinion I have been thinking of going that route for awhile.

I posted some pictures of the Toyota box we put in Dave Gruells truck, but they havent posted yet???  Perhaps because of the pictures?   Will check back later but hope its not another lost post,, LOL
vic

Wow you did get a toyota box in there?!?!?!I really hope the pics work. I have been looking at that for awhile but haven't been able to figure it out. What toyota did the box come out of do you know?

I just tried again???????
vic,,,
 
now one more time,,,, krud

5th time,,,, 
logged in as Old Skool,, but says "you havent got the rights to access this page"
will try again,,
vic

Hey they finally worked thanks for trying so many times. That looks awesome!!! Did that end up working with a manual shift column three on the tree? Did you guys keep the output shaft of the steering box in the same location as the stock one? That box looks huge what was it out of? thanks for playing twenty questions with me. HAHA

They wont let me post a link to the part number??   or a copy and paste of it either,,,,  wondering if this will come through,,, I have tried over a dozen times and ways and very hungry,,,LOL..
vic

Okay,,  LAST time for now..... its a power steering box out of an 85 Toyota 4whl drive.  I have a new one here for mine. The one we did in Dave Gruells truck we could not get the gear shifting around the front of the box so he put in a huge stick shift from the front of dog house in the floor.  It was for an automatic.
  In the one picture I had showed him the issue and had an idea to remove that part as it was for an oil supply hole. I had planned on turning the top of the box to make it easier for the shifter, but it was clocked so I almost got away with that idea.  On mine I plan to mill off that area and re route it with tubing and the correct fittings so there are no leaks.  That area I pointed out in the picture is nothing more than an oil passage.
vic

thanks for everything that looks awesome talk to you later.

Vic, Did you install that for Dave Grohl,the Dave Grohl from the band Foo Fighters?? I seen him driving a red and white Econo window van in the movie Sound City.

Sinister wrote:Vic, Did you install that for Dave Grohl,the Dave Grohl from the band Foo Fighters?? I seen him driving a red and white Econo window van in the movie Sound City.

Sound City is an awesome documentary.


I want tight(er) steering.

I had my steering box rebuilt by pro steering. Complete rebuild not just replace bearing and adjust gears. The truck is solid. I don't have any bump steer issue.

How much and where are they located. ?

600.00
http://www.prosteering.com/index.htm

Awesome to deal with called with suggestion and completed as promise. That's why I belong to this site
The people here know what there doing...

I had my fingers in the whole truck build as a customer built it.  We talked and figured out kinds of things for it.  I have all the build pictures showing it as we did it.  The A/C unit install was a brilliant idea if I must say so myself,   LOL>.......  years before this build I had done one other but I had advised against welding the support bracket to the front of the truck and so on Dave Grohl's truck we used my idea of supporting it with a bracket that went from head light to headlight,,, 
  STILL working on re doing the pictures into folders and so a lot more to do,, as soon as I can find them again,, I will try to remember to post them for you,,,
vic

Found some pics,,,,  LOTS more work to do,,but here are a few for now..
vic

i love ingenuity. Using other parts to better our rides. Awesome.

Vic, you really need to take your bracket designs to a fab shop and produce them for sale. You could open up a whole new revenue stream for your business, AND still install them locally.

all i can say is wow.