steering box questions

[GonHuntin]

I'm in the middle of a father/son 73 Mustang convertible build.

I recently swapped a factory saginaw 800 high effort, quick ratio steering box from an IROC camaro into my 68 camaro and the improvement is great.

71-73 mustangs also used the saginaw 800 steering box, however, the mounting points on the case are different, so they are not a direct bolt in. I have an extra IROC steering box and would like to use it in the Mustang. I am wondering if I can swap the internals from the IROC box into the mustang case??

I looked up rebuild kits for both boxes and they show different part numbers, but I don't know enough about the differences to know if I can do what I want.

Anybody ever done this or know the answer??

 

[RacerX]

I've heard about using a mid 80 ' s jeep internals in our Mustang steering box to make it a quick ratio but haven't done it. Interested if the iroc components would be the same. I'd guess so..

 

[sicndhed]

Not your specific question but a side note. The Jeep GC box is the one that is mentioned for our Mustangs. It has the same ratio as the IROC box but differnt internal stops. The Jeep box is used in Chevelles rather than the IROC box because the IROC box does not have as much travel (pitman rotation)as the original box. You can use an IROC box in a Chevelle but the turning radius will be increased. I'm guessing the same would happen in a Mustang.

 

[GonHuntin]

By using the mustang case and end cap, the mustang turning radius would be retained…….at least that is my understanding.

From what I have read, the end cap controls the left turn stop and the right turn stop is in the case itself.

 

[sicndhed]

Yes I think that's true. I just mentioned it as some have talked about trying the IROC box in a Mustang.

 

[GonHuntin]

I see.

A buddy has a parts car with PS and said we could rob the box off of it to do some comparison. If everything looks like it will work, we can rebuild the parts car box with the IROC guts and replace his steering box with the one off my son's car. That way, we can keep son's car mobile while we do the rebuild……at least that is the plan.

 

[sicndhed]

Another option, back before the IROC people would modify the stops inside the second gen T/A box to give it the proper sweep for a Chevelle. If the internals won't swap to the Mustang box and you decide to adapt a GM box you can still use the box you have with stop mods. IIRC one end was simple and the other needed a few minutes on a mill but could be done with a saw/file and a lot of beer.

 

[GonHuntin]

That is good to know, any idea where I can find the info on where and how much to cut the stops?

 

[sicndhed]

I thought this was going to be easy, There was detailed magazine article about it. It was over 12 years ago but ( I know I lived in CA when I read about it) but I cant remember which mag it was. I did a quick Google about the WS6 box and there is a lot of talk about modifying the stops but I did not find the details of doing it It should be out there somewhere.