'66 Steering Upgrade

Well, I decided it was time to upgrade my ’66 Coupe.
Nothing fancy, no blowers or NOS (yet). Anyway, every
old car like this needs better suspension, brakes, and
steering before adding more power. This is a daily
driver street car, and certainly not a race car. I
also didn’t want to spend millions for minimal results.
I had some free time and empty garage space while
the Cobra is in Paint Shop Prison, so now’s the time.

Next up, got to improve the factory power steering
system. It’s heavy, bulky, takes a lot of power to
run, and leaks all over the place. And the power
assist doesn’t work all that well. It was all rebuilt
(except the gear box) about 12 years ago, but it’s
still old technology and replacement parts weren’t that
good then. The system wasn’t bad, but it wandered a
lot and had a pretty vague feel to it. Plus, that
hydraulic system sucked a lot of power out of the engine.

There are a variety of options available now. The
Mustang II set up is probably the hot ticket. No shock
towers, lower CG, no strut arm, better A-arms and
bushings, and huge disc brakes. But that’s a lot of
very careful work, needs to be done with the engine
out, and costs around $2500-3000’ish, depending on how
much work you can do yourself. Best done during a
total overhaul. Great set up, but more involved than I
want to get right now. The Fat Man Fabrications kit is
also very nice. Provides an advanced suspension system
with modern parts and brakes, but still essentially a
bolt on operation. It also requires that you scrounge
up and rebuild a few parts from a late model Mustang;
something I didn’t really feel like doing. . It is a
little expensive, costing around $3-3.5K total with
rebuilt/new brake parts and steering rack.

So, again, I called Mustangs Plus, and had them send me
their Flaming River bolt on R&P kit. Cost was about
$1300’ish. It’s a simple bolt on, right? Actually,
it almost was. To start with, the instructions stink.
Much worse than an FFR assembly manual. I struggled
until I tossed them and did it my way. Much easier
after that.

Again, disassembly can be a pain. The worst part is
removing the steering box. This is a ’66, the gear box
and shaft are one piece all the way up to the steering
wheel; affectionately referred to as the “Thoracic
Impaler”. In a front end collision, guess where that
rod ends up? You got it. That’s a good reason to get
rid of it.

Once you remove the column cover, you have this big
hole in the firewall with a 3 foot greasy, nasty steel
rod poking through it and a heavy box hanging from the
end. The instructions in the kit are pretty simple,
and the service manual is just as easy. Remove the
pitman arm. Remove the 3 bolts attaching the box to
the frame. Remove the steering box assembly from the
car. Wow, how hard can this be?

What they don’t tell you is that you have to jack up
the engine to get the box between the frame rails and
exhaust manifold. OK, no big deal. Remove the bolts
and jack up the engine a couple of inches. No sweat.
Now, you have this 3 ½ foot chunk of steel to try and
maneuver out of the car. Not happening. The
instruction manual and the magazine articles show this
in a car with a rag joint, or the engine is removed.
With the engine in, there’s no way this is coming out
whole; no matter how much time you spend wrestling with
it. Fortunately, I own a Sawzall. Do you know why
it’s called that? Because it does. Even a Mustang
steering shaft. Once you do that, it almost falls on
your head, so be careful. The box is trash, but I’m
sure I can use the shaft for something.

Now everything is out, and time to install the new
stuff. It’s a simple bolt on, right? What a
nightmare. I installed the steering column, and marked
the location for the floor plate screws. Took it all
back out, drilled the holes as marked, and tried to
install those crappy sheet metal screws they supply.
Again, not happening. So I drilled the holes bigger,
and installed threaded inserts. That worked great.
Let me tell you, you have to be a real contortionist to
get that column in and out 2-3 times. Right now, arson
was sounding like a good idea.

About this time, I started thinking about the wiring.
The instructions don’t mention that until last. That’s
wrong. It should be done first, as soon as all the old
parts are out. Trying to make those connections with
the column in the way is almost impossible. So out
comes the column – again. Hey, I’m getting good at
this! And I traced down all the correct wires,
soldered them together, and plugged it all in. With
the column lying on the floor nothing worked. No horn
or turn signals. Crap! Now it’s time to trace back
all my connections and circuits, go over the schematic
a fifth time, and try and figure this out. No, it was
time to quit for the day before that arson thing came
up again.

The next day, I was back at it. I spent an hour or two
retracing all the circuits, and checking every
connection. Provided two new ground circuits, nothing.
Everything looked perfect! Nothing wrong anywhere.
What’s the deal here? Very Frsutrating. I think I
started making up my own sear words. Then, I got a
wild hair and pulled out the 4 way flasher switch. Now
everything works. Maybe that little tid bit should
have been in the instruction set. “Again, information
I could have used yesterday!”

OK, so now the I have the new tilt column bolted in,
adjusted, and wired correctly. Looks and feels pretty
good; but I think Flaming River needs to work on their
columns a bit. I don’t know what kind of bearings they
use, but they are not as smooth and quiet as they
should be. Installation of the horn button is done
with a standard Grant adapter kit, so no big deal there.

But now it’s time to crawl underneath and start the
bolt on process. The cradle almost fits as advertised.
The instructions tell you about two small frame tabs
that need to be trimmed about 1/8”. Sure enough, there
they are - 2 minutes with a grinder and you’re set.
What they don’t tell you about is the interference
higher up in the shock tower. So you have to put the
cradle in and out a few times until you get it just
right. Then it really does bolt right up to the frame
rails. The holes actually matched!

So you bolt the rack to the cradle, set the cradle in
place, and measure for the DD shaft. Measure twice and
cut once. Actually, measure four times and cut once,
that DD shaft is expensive. So now you have wrestle it
all together. Insert one end of the DD shaft in the
U-joint at the end of the steering column, and then try
to get the other end into the U-joint on the rack.
Oh, and did I mention that you need to hold the rack up
by hand while you’re doing this? Remember, the DD
shaft goes in the middle, so you can’t just bolt in the
cradle, then insert the shaft. It’s a struggle, but it
can be done.

Great! Now just tighten down the bolts on the frame
rails, and we’re in the home stretch. Guess again,
Pony Breath. Not so fast. This is where I discover
that right side retainer bracket hits the starter
motor. I had to take it all apart, modify the
bracket, then paint it, then re-install everything.
It’s easier the second and third time around; you get
the hang of it.

OK, so now it’s all installed. It’s simply a matter of
installing the tie rod ends to the correct width,
attaching to the spindles, and you’re done. Did I say
done? What was I thinking? The ads and the
instructions say to use the original tie rod ends.
Great! Mine are pretty new, so I’ll just use them –
save time and money. However, there’s the fine print.
On a P/S car, you have to use two right side tie rod
ends; the left side is different and doesn’t work. Now
you tell me! So I have to order the part from AZ;
takes another day.

On the final day, I installed both tie rod ends, put
the wheels back on, set the toe in, and went for a
drive. Wow, what an improvement. The old system
wasn’t bad, but it was pretty old. Straight line
tracking and corners are a dream now. It feels even
lighter than the original set up. Turn the wheel just
a little, and that’s where it goes. No wandering at
all. It’s a new car. Still too much caster so parking
lots are a little tough, but an alignment tomorrow will
fix that.

Would I do it all again? Maybe. Sure is an
improvement in handling and braking. It was pretty
expensive, close to $1500. It was also a real bear of
a job. I wouldn’t volunteer to do that again. But it
sure would be easier on the second car Last year I
rebuilt the front end with all new parts. And last
spring I rebuilt the rear suspension, welding in Shelby
traction bars and sub frame connectors. Now the old
girl really drives nice. Almost as good as a new car,
but much better looking and cheaper.

So what’s next? Probably rebuild the differential,
that’s nearly 40 years old and sounds terrible. The
engine/trans is pretty good – using the old fashioned
302/C4 combo; all overhauled 12 years ago. Strong and
reliable, but nothing to get excited about. So, 5.0?
Blower? Big block? Stroker? Nah, to bland, too
ordinary. I’m trying to get my hands on a 4 cyl turbo
with AOD out of a Thunderbird TurboCoupe. Now that
would be a fun swap. Plenty of power, light weight,
good fuel mileage, easy to drive. Keeping my eyes open
for a good donor car.


--
..boB
1997 HD FXDWG - Turbocharged!
2001 Dodge Dakota QC 5.9/4x4/3.92
1966 Mustang Coupe - Daily Driver
1966 FFR Cobra - Ongoing project

Sweet, looks like it would be a lot easier to do it with the engine out.


"Dinsdale" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks for the great play-by-play. I've been considering a R&P
> upgrade and it was good to see a real-world view.
>
>
> On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:19:47 -0700, ".boB"
> > wrote a big long article
>
>>
>
> DP
> Pics of the cars:
> http://tinyurl.com/4fcsn