Fabieber, Three e-mails and about 15 photos sent this morning. Hope you get them.

Mark

1956 Mercury M100
1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan
Delta, British Columbia

Hi Mark,

I did not receive the mail so maybe you can try again.

My mail address is         fred@csfplanning.com

Thank you,

Fred

Fabieber, I sent you an e-mail. Its my first attempt at this on this site so I hope it went through.

Mark

1956 Mercury M100
1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan
Delta, British Columbia

I have been out of town for a couple days so missed your comments.  Do you have pictures of your install you would be willing to send me or post?  I an intending to have all my work reviewed by a local mechanic who is also a classic car guy but want to make certain I do the process close enough to right that he won't have to guess if it is OK.

I installed the Toyota Power steering box in my '56 mercury Pickup. In fact I did it twice because I made a serious mistake on my first attempt and destroyed the steering box. On my first attempt I built my own bracket for the steering box, but used Mid Fifties Toyota to ford pitman arm. There were no detailed installation instructions then (2008 or so). I installed the box, pointed the wheels straight ahead, installed the pitman close to vertical (there was some trial and error because one spline on the steering box equals quite a few degrees movement for and aft), hooked up the drag link, centered the steering wheel and took it for a spin. The steering wheel wasn't quite centered s I readjusted it as best as I could, 50 miles later the steering box was toast. I got another steering box from a local (Vancouver B.C.) steering box rebuilder. He gave me a very important piece of information. Make certain the steering gear is centered before you mount it in the truck. The steering has to be in this centre spot when you are going straight or you will wreck the box. The problem with the '56 F100 is that the tie rod connects directly to the spindle arm and there is no adjustment other than toe in. Because the spines on the pitman arm are fairly coarse the steering was either 1/8 of a turn off in one direction or the other. I bought the Mid Fifties mounting bracket which mover the mounting point of the box forward about 1/4". I had to ream out the hole in the frame. This helped a little. Mid Fifties exchanged my original pitman arm for a prototype they had just developed which helped a bit more, but the steering box was still not centered when the truck was going straight. I found out that the Chevs have an adjustable drag link that allows them to adjust the wheels to the straight ahead position. No such thing for the Fords. So I ended up grinding about 50 thousands off the rear spring inside the drag link. Through a trial and error process that essentially shortened the drag link slightly I was able to get everything centered properly. After three years its still good. Mid Fifties asked me to send them pictures of my installation process and a description of how I centered the steering box but I don't think they are using it. My truck has been lowered quite a bit so this may have played a role in my situation. I have toyed with the idea of getting a machine shop to cut up a drag link and weld in a set of right and left threads and an adjustment sleeve like a modern tie rod set up so it can be adjusted, but have been busy on other projects. Hope this helps. Mark

Mark

1956 Mercury M100
1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan
Delta, British Columbia

I have an add on accessory pulley I would sell you - $100. It bolts to the main crank pulley. I can send pictures if you sen me your email.

Marc

'54 Merc ragtop

Pt Townsend, WA   

                                                                                                                                   

hi there

i did this sometime ago and don't recall any major problems

go to http://www.midfifty.com/instructions  scroll down to inst 4620 and others

also look at J.Mummerts site http://www.ford-y-block.com/accessories.htm  for brackets bolts

good luck

stuey

England

I am adding power steering to my 55 F100.

I have the Toyota box and a Saginaw pump.  Does anyone know where I can get a dual crank pulley without having to buy a new one which seems to be in the $175 price range?

Also, if anyone has completed this update and has a willingness to provide some technical help as I go I would really appreciate it.