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Mini-Truck Power Steering Box on a 1971 FJ40 Using a 1975 Column and Saginaw Pump

I have learned a lot about doing a major project like this on the Cruiser. One thing I have learned is to research FIRST, then get ALL the parts together BEFORE tearing into it. Then make everything fit and work BEFORE painting or powder coating anything! On this particular project I didn't do this and it bit me in the ass... Not once but twice! Trust me, do as I say, not as I did! It will save you hours of time. Ok on that note...

Parts you will need

1. Fig. 1 shows the mini-truck parts you should get from the donor truck. Clean up these parts so you can check their condition. It's not uncommon to have a pitman arm seal leaking, a cracked reservoir nipple, or a suspect hose. See Fig. 2 . Now is the perfect time to paint everything! Though you will not be using the mini-truck pump, pump mounting bracket, and the belt adjustment pulley, clean them up anyway so you can sell them to someone else and put the money towards parts you need.

2. In order to work without cussing, I HIGHLY recommend you remove the front bib, radiator, radiator support, drivers side apron and fender. Be prepared to break off the bolts holding the fender to the frame. You will need a 8mm x 1.25 tap and drill to fix them! I already had the body completely off so access was a breeze. :-)
3. Remove the Stock Air Cleaner but leave the mounting bracket under the head bolts for now. Just remove the 4 small nuts holding the main can to that bracket and set the assembly aside for now. We will remove that bracket a bit later when we make up an adapter bracket to slightly relocate the air cleaner to clear the Sag pump.
4. Now lets strip the front of the engine. Remove the F alternator and tensioning bracket. Remove the lower alternator support bracket bolted to the block. Save it in case you ever revert back to manual steering. See Fig. 3.
5. Remove the 4 blade metal fan and pulley, then disconnect all coolant lines from the water pump. Remove the 4 bolts that hold the 1F water pump and remove it.
6. Clean all the old gasket material from the front of the block.
7. Install the new 2F water pump. Use a new gasket for it! Coat both sides with a THIN coat of silicone then bolt it up with the 4 10mm x 1.5 bolts. Remember to use anti seize on all three of the bolt threads and thread sealant on the very bottom bolt. This bolt penetrates the water jacket!
8. Attach the two groove 2F water pump pulley temporarily to the water pump with a couple of short 8mm x 1.25 bolts.
9. Now you need to get the harmonic balancer nut off in preparation for pulling the balancer. This is a 46mm nut. If you don't have a 46mm socket you can use a 1 13/16 SAE socket.
10. Put the truck in third or 4th gear, 4-hi and chock all 4 wheels. Use a large air impact gun or a LONG cheater bar, and start praying it comes off easily. Remember lefty loosy, righty tighty... If it doesn't come off easily (most don't), you will need to get creative... See step eleven...
11. Attach a pipe wrench EXACTLY as shown in Fig. 4 to the nut, making sure it is adjusted TIGHT!  The handle is pointed to the PASSENGER side! Make sure to chain it down securely! Now unplug the coil wire so the truck CANNOT start, and just bump the starter. The nut should spin right off! If it doesn't you may need to resort to heat...
12. Once the nut is off, pull the F crank pulley using a puller. See Fig. 5 . (Note: You may need to tap the threaded holes in the pulley to clean them up before threading in the puller bolts.  Use a 8mm x 1.25 tap for this.
13. Inspect the crank shaft snout for rust, pitting or other forms of abnormal wear. Carefully inspect the key way and crank pulley key. If they are worn from the pulley being loose at some time you may need to get a machine shop to help fix it.
14. If your front timing cover gasket or crank pulley seal is leaking, now is a good time to replace them!
15. Check the seal surface on the 'new' crank pulley. I am using a 3 groove FJ62 3FE pulley and unfortunately it was badly grooved. I installed an SKF 99177 Speedi-sleeve to correct this little problem. See Crank Pulley for pics of this. If your seal surface is good, put a bit of grease on the shaft and install it. Tighten the large 46mm nut to 123 ft lbs.

Mounting the Saginaw Power Steering Pump Bracket

1. The Saginaw pump bracket mounts ON TOP of the drivers side front engine mount. Do NOT put the bracket between the engine block and the engine mount!
2. In order to install this safely, you will need to support the engine while you take the engine mount bolts loose. I simply used a scissors jack and a short piece of 2 x 4 placed under the edge of the engine block right under where the old alternator bracket was bolted. You can see the 2 x 4 in Fig. 6 above. Raise it just enough to take the pressure off the bolts, then loosen the three engine mount bolts until you can slide the bracket down behind the bolt washers as far as it will go. See Fig. 7. Tighten the bolts snuggly but do not torque them at this point. You may need to adjust, ie tilt, the bracket to help the pump pulley line up with the other pulleys.
3. Get the two 3/8-16 x 2" long studs you bought or made, apply some thread locker to the threads, and thread one of them into the very bottom bolt hole on the back of the Sag pump. Note: You may want to use a hacksaw to cut a screwdriver slot in one end to make it easier to remove the stud later.See Fig 8. This is where the pump bolts to the bracket you just installed. Thread the other stud into the top right bolt hole on the front of the pump. This stud is where the adjuster bracket will mount. See Fig. 9.
4. Now the fun stuff begins! At this point we need to see where the pulleys are going to align. Install the pulley on the pump, but do not install the pulley nut. The pump comes with the woodruff key, make sure it does not become dislodged when installing and removing the pulley! You will be removing this several times! Hold the pump up so that the mounting stud on the back goes through the hole in the mounting bracket. Place a washer and nut on the end of the stud, but do not tighten the nut at all. You need to move the pump back and forth for visually aligning the pump pulley to the other pulleys.
5. Before adjusting the pump alignment, you need to install the belt adjusting bracket to help hold the pump while you align it to the other pulleys. I had read that the belt adjusting bracket was supposed to mount to a water pump mounting bolt. Well, I could not figure out how that was supposed to work. The bracket sent is LONG, and no way would it align with any bolt on the water pump. What is does align with, (with the proper spacer) is the front shock mounting stud! See Fig. 10. I made a 1/2" wide spacer to go between the pump and the bracket so that the adjusting arm is aligned correctly. I made this from a piece of brass that I drilled a 3/8" hole in then sanded to the proper width. Your spacer may differ in width! See Fig. 11. For now leave the two nuts loose on the adjusting arm so the pump can move back and forth.
6. Using an old belt on the BACK pulley groove of the water pump and crank pulleys (the alternator you moved to the passengers side will be on the front pulley), or just do it visually, move the pump back and forth until it appears to be in line with the crank and water pump pulleys. Once it appears to be lined up (not critical we will adjust as we proceed) just take a guess at how much distance there is between the pump body and the mounting bracket. We need to create a spacer that is that width. Most find it easier to just get a stack of 3/8" washers and put between the pump and the bracket. Add or subtract washers until you get the belt aligned as close as possible.
7. Once you have a washer stack of the correct width, measure it and either buy a spacer with a 3/8" hole in it the correct width (https://www.mcmaster.com/#through-hole-spacers/=16xreic), or make one from some scrap metal. I made mine from a piece of brass I had laying around. You can also just use the washers permanently. My spacer ended up being .XXX" wide.
8. OK so now we have the pump mounted and aligned! Next we have to address the OEM air cleaner. You may have noticed in Fig 6, the air cleaner will no longer fit in the stock location!

Making a BOLT ON bracket to relocate the OEM Air Cleaner

1. If you are lazy, or don't know how to fabricate, you can skip this section and go straight to JTOutFitters and order their air cleaner replacement. Part # JTO1FAIRCLEANER. However, if you want to keep your cool looking OEM air cleaner keep reading!
2. Get your 1/2 breaker bar and a 19mm socket. Remove the two front head bolts that hold the OEM air cleaner in place. (Don't worry about leaks or blowing a head gasket doing this. You will torque these back once the bracket is built. No one I have ever heard of has blown a head gasket doing this.)
3. Once you have the bracket out, replace the head bolts and torque them to XXft lbs. Just to be sure we don't upset the head gasket gods...
4. Get your 4 x 6 piece of 10 ga or 1/8" sheet metal and the air cleaner bracket. On a good flat surface, lay the metal down and align the air cleaner bracket square with the top left corner. See Fig. 12. Using a pencil or marker, mark the holes.
5. Using a pin punch, make a drill starter hole in the center of each marked circle. Super accuracy is NOT required here! You will make the holes big enough to compensate for lack of accuracy.
6. Now use a 1/4" or smaller drill bit and drill all the way through the bracket. Now use a 9/16" drill or one of those step drill bits and drill the holes to final size. I also used a counter sink bit to remove all the burrs from both sides of the holes.
7. Remove the two head bolts again, verify the fit of the bolts and bolt the bracket down snuggly. No need to torque as you will be removing it again. See Fig 13.
8. Now get your OEM air cleaner bracket and the air cleaner top and bottom. Now we must locate the air cleaner so that the top will fit over the carb air horn, and the bottom will clear the pump and anything else in that area. Using two of the small nuts and washers, loosely fit the air cleaner mounting bracket back to the air cleaner bottom. Attach the top loosely with the wing nut. Using your three hands, put the top of the air cleaner down on the carb air horn and lay the air cleaner mounting bracket on top of the 4 x 6 plate. Move it around until you get the best alignemnt and still have at least an 1/8" clearance to the pump to allow the pump to be adjusted. Use a small C-Clamp to temporaryly clamp the air cleaner mounting bracket to the plate.
9. Mark the holes for the mounting bracket as you did before. Remove the air cleaner and mounting plate. Make a drill starter hole and using a 1/8" bit drill the starter hole. Now enlarge the holes to 25/64 for 8mm bolts.
10. Get 2 8mm nuts. Put an 8mm bolt through both holes in the plate, thread the nuts on finger tight against the plate trying to keep the bolts centered in the holes, then tack weld the nuts to the plate.
11. Mount the plate back on the head, then mount the air cleaner bracket to the plate using the 8mm bolts. Bolt the air cleaner back on to the bracket and again check all clearances. Adjust the air cleaner housing and the bracket for best clearances and looks.
12. Clean the plate up, and paint or powder coat it your color of choice.

Mounting the steering box/Modding the column

Note! Make sure ALL your body mounts are installed and tightened down before doing the rest of this install! This ensures the body and frame are aligned as they should be BEFORE cutting and welding things!

1. Remove the steering wheel and turn signal housing. Unplug the horn wire halfway down the column. Make a note of where the wires go!
2. Remove the pitman arm from the steering box.
3. Unbolt the steering column boot (or it's remains...) from the firewall.
4. Unbolt the steering box from the frame mount.
5. Unbolt the steering column support bracket and remove the column and box through the engine compartment.
6. Get your air chisel with a rivet cutting tool or an angle grinder and a BFH with a pointed chisel. Remove the four rivets holding the steering box pedestal. to the frame. Cut the heads off then beat the remainder out. See Fig. 27.
7. Clean up the frame in this area with a wire brush, sand , prime and paint it. Let it dry.
8. Mount the new steering box pedestal. to the frame using 12mm x 1.5 pitch x 1 1/4" long metric grade 10.9 or better bolts,flat washers, lock washers and lock tight. Check the hole size against the bolts you will use to mount the new bracket, you may need to drill them out a bit. You want the bolts to be a tight fit in the holes! NO SLOP!
9. Place the mini-truck steering box on the mount so that the output shaft is centered on the mount. Use clamps to temporarily position it. Absolutely Do NOT drill the holes yet! There will be some adjusting to do. See Fig. 28.
10. Install the rag joint on the PS box.
11. Use a chop saw, hacksaw or angle grinder and cut the steering column tube right up against the square mounting bracket. See Fig. 29. You will end up with a tube that is 20 inches long. As a reference the later shafts (34 1/2" long) are 3/4 inch SHORTER than the early shafts so you get a little extra room between you and the steering wheel with this swap.
12. The Toyota Bushing/Dust Seal is split to make installation easy. Install it onto the steering shaft about 6" from the rag joint coupler.
13. Install the steering column tube back into the truck. Secure it loosely at the top with the OEM 1971 support clamp make sure the two brackets are UNDER the edge of the dash! If you put them on top, the angle will be wrong for the power steering box. See Fig. 30
14. Slide the steering shaft up through the steering tube from the engine compartment and let it just sit on the rag joint coupler. Do not bolt it up yet!
15. Install the ignition switch housing back onto the top of the steering tube. Slide the shaft bearing onto the shaft and tap the bearing back into place in the ignition switch housing. (Don't install the bearing retaining clip just yet, you will be taking this apart several times.) Make sure the switch housing is at the TOP with key to the right and LEVEL.
16. Looking at the steering shaft from the engine compartment, center the shaft in the firewall opening by sliding the top bracket back and forth. Tighten the dash clamp to secure the steering tube. See Fig. 32
17. Install the steering wheel temporarily. While watching the shaft and rag joint, SLOWLY turn the wheel lock to lock checking for any binding or misalignment. Put ONE bolt into the rag joint finger tight. Rotate it again looking for misalignment. You may have to move your power steering box, shim it, adjust your column mounting clamp, or possibly shave or shim your body mounts to get a good alignment. Mine was close enough that the rag joint would take up the difference. See Fig. 31 for how far off mine was.

Fabricating the Steering tube Firewall plate

1. Fig. 32 shows the steering tube centered in the opening in the firewall. When the tube is held centered around the shaft the steering tube is at a 31.5 degree angle. Fig. 33
2. Next measure where the shaft is in relation to the firewall opening side to side and top to bottom. Write that down, then remove the column from the truck.
3. Now we need to make the firewall mounting plate to seal the opening and support the end of the steering tube. I happened to have the OEM rubber seal and it's retaining bracket to use as a template. If you do not have these pieces then use a piece of paper, press it against the opening from the inside and do a rubbing to get an outline that can be transferred a a piece of sheet metal. Note: Cruiser Outfitters also sells a pre-cut plate for $25 if you don't want to fab one.
4. I got a piece of 16ga sheet metal, roughly marked the outline, cut it out with a jig saw equipped with a bi-metal blade, cleaned it up on my belt sander then drilled the holes with the drill press. Make sure to drill the holes a bit over size so you have a bit of leeway when bolting it down. I ended up doing a bit of file work! See Fig. 34 for the first plate I made. (I ended up making another one that fit better.
5. Now comes the fun part... The steering tube will pass through the center of the plate at approximately a 31.5 degree angle (For MY truck. Your angle may be slightly different!). If you mark a 1.5" diameter hole in the center of the plate and drill it straight through, the tube will not fit through the hole at the required angle! The actual shape of the hole needs to be an ellipse. I'm sure there is a way to calculate the ellipse. and draw it, but there is a much easier way if you have a drill press! Most drill presses allow the table to be tilted from zero (level) to 45 degrees or more.
6. What I did was to first screw the plate to a 2 x 4 using deck screws, added another 2 x 4 under that one, clamped the 2 x 4's loosely to the drill table using clamps, tilted my table to 31.5 degrees then mounted the 1.5" hole saw in the drill press. See Fig. 35 and 36.
7. The hard part here is getting the hole centered on the plate that is tilted at 31.5 degrees! Again I'm sure there is a way to measure this and plot it on the plate but I just eyeballed it 10 times and clamped it down tight.
8. The bit I bought said to run it at 195 RPM for mild steel. I set the drill press to the closest equivalent on my Jet (200 RPM) and slowly lowered the hole saw until the edge started cutting into the plate. TAKE YOUR TIME!!! If you rush this, the bit will grab the plate and move it! I just took my time and drilled all the way through. Instant ellipse.! See Fig. 37.

1. I then bolted the plate to the firewall and mounted everything back up. Hmmm.... I drilled the hole a bit too low... No problem. I mounted a 1 1/2" flap wheel in the drill press and slowly removed a bit of material to "center" the hole which also got the steering shaft centered better in the steering tube. If it's not centered it will rub the steering tube causing noise and wear. See Fig. 38.
2. There is a thread in the FJ45 section on IH8MUD by a guy called Miker. He built a really cool clamp to hold the steering tube in place. I decided to try to make my own version of this. First I found a metal pipe that was thin walled and 1. 75 inches in diameter. This easily slips over the OEM steering tube which is 1.5". I cut a 3" section of that, along with two small spacers that a 6mm bolt will pass through. See Fig. 39
3. Fig. 40 shows how this is going to work. The short tube will have a clamp made into the end, the steering tub slips inside that, then the short tube is welded to the firewall plate.
4. To make the clamp I measured 1/2 from the end of the tube and scribed a line. See Fig. 40. I then took a hack saw and cut on that line exactly half way through the tube. See Fig. 41.
5. Next I put a 6mm threaded rod through the two spacers with a brass spacer between them. I tightened the nuts then took that assembly to the belt sander and pressed it against the roller end to make a rounded cut that would help me weld it on easier. See Fig. 42.
6. I clamped that assembly to the tube and welded each spacer to the tube. See Fig. 43.
7. After cleaning up the welds a bit I removed the 6mm bolt, took the assembly to my chop saw and used it to slice the tube between the spacers to create the clamp.
8. Test fitting revealed I would need a couple of rubber strips to take up the slack and to provide a bit of dampening to the column. The clamp works perfectly! See Fig 44 and 45.

1. Last I placed the tube in position, installed the column again, lined everything up one more time, then tack welded the tube to the firewall plate. I removed everything then welded the tube all the way around. See Fig. 46.
2. Finally! I have everything in place to Bolt the box down in it's final resting place with 12MM X 1.5 Pitch x1 1/4" grade 10.9 or better bolts,flat washers, lock washers and Loctite!. I installed everything back in the truck one last time, loosely clamped the steering box down to the mounting plate, aligned it up, bolted the rag joint to the steering shaft, tightened the column clamp, FIRMLY clamped the steering box down once aligned then used a 27/64" transfer punch to mark the four holes in the box mounting plate. I removed everything one more time, and drilled the holes. If possible drill the holes using a drill press. Clamp it firmly, drill slow and use lube to keep the bit cool. Getting all excited I failed to take any pics of the clamping, marking or drilling operations
3. You will need to mount the 2F fan shroud. It's more shallow than the 1F shroud but bolts right up to the 1F radiator support. I also used a 6 blade direct drive plastic fan that bolted right up to the 2F water pump pulley. See my Radiator Restore page for more details of this stuff.

Plumbing it all together

1. Because of the way the oil filter mounts on the F engine I needed to get the 90 degree adapter Part # from Toyota
2. The mini-truck/Saganaw system you now have is very easy to plumb. It consists of a pump/reservoir, steering box and cooler. A quick description of how the fluid flows: The reservoir feeds the pump low pressure oil via an internal connection between the reservoir and pump. The pump increases the pressure to 1150 PSI and sends the now pressurized oil via a high pressure hose to the inlet of the steering box. If you are looking at the steering box from above as mounted on the frame it is the RIGHT side port. The pressurized oil does it's work then exits the box from the LEFT side port at low pressure via the large nipple, through the hose to the inlet of the cooler where it's cooled. It exits the cooler and returns to the reservoir via the smaller hose to the smaller nipple on the Saganaw pump. If you are not using a cooler it's even simpler.

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