manual saginaw shaft angle?

I'm thinking about switching out my Ross Box for a Saginaw. I've read plenty of manual saginaw threads already, but I still have a question, pertaining to my motor mount location.


I have a small turbo diesel engine in my 2a, and the driver side motor mount goes straight out from the motor to the frame (parallel to the ground) and goes JUST above the factory drag link that goes from the pitman arm on the ross box, forward to the bell crank. At full wheel turn, I literally have about 1/8" of clearance, haha! (with the wheels facing forward, drag link at it's lowest angle, there is plenty of room) And the mount on the frame itself is kind of bulky, I wonder will the saginaw shaft be low enough down to clear my motor mounts? (or possibly high enough to go over the mount? )

In setting up a manual saginaw steering, how much room for adjustment is there in how high or low the steering shaft goes? I guess by "adjustment" I mean the length of the steering column, the longer the steering column, the angle of the shaft would change... if that makes sense? Or in the mounting location of the box itself.


Here is a photos I took when I was mid way through the engine swap, which best shows the mounts in relation to how high up the drag link is. Note that this is with the wheels pointing forward, so the drag link is at it's lowest point. Does anyone have an idea if a saginaw setup would be problematic here? Think it would be low enough to go under the mount? I've been trying to find a good side photo that shows the angle and location of a saginaw shaft in relation to the frame, but I can't seem to find one that shows clearly enough for me to determine if it would clear my mount or not.

 

I would say that it would easily clear that mount. But keep in mind the correct placement of the steering gear in relation to the drag link , spindles , Tie rod and angle back to the column should all be addressed first in order to get proper steering geometry............and you still have to convert your column, put a joint on the end of it and then bring a shaft forward to your steering gear. Not hard , but lots of measuring...........

Years back I did several conversions from Ross to Manual Saginaw and the results as compared to the stock Ross in as far as easier steering were not that impressive.........meaning if you have over sized tires and spend time off the pavement in dirt or mud..........the manual system may not be the best choice to help that!

 

I eliminated a lot of slop in the steering when I went from Ross to manual Saginaw, but as mentioned above, there was no mechanical advantage to be gained in the feel of the steering. After about two years I went to power steering and will never look back. I wouldn't recommend going manual if you can swing the expense of going power. It will probably be more fabricating with your engine to mount a pump, but other than that, you have to deal with the same fabrication issues doing a manual conversion as opposed to a power steering conversion. If you have a routing issue with the steering shaft you can use multiple u-joints to re-route you shaft. I had to do this on my conversion. You will want to try to make your new draglink as close to parallel with the tie-rod as possible. The drop on your pitman arm and the height that you mount your steering box will determine how close you can get to parallel.

 

I am running a manual saginaw in my CJ2A with a V-6. The top of my motor mounts are even with the top of the frame so you should have no trouble with interference there. My front cross member is round and my steering rod goes underneath the crossmember. I guess it depends how high you mount the steering box mounting plate.

John Schiefer
Clive, IA

 

I guess the path of the steering shaft can be altered quite a bit, I did some looking around on hotrods and streetrods, and some of them have some pretty interesting steering shaft routing, haha!

 

speedway motors has a ton of steering stuff http://www.speedwaymotors.com