steering shaft swappable?

[mebruce]

I read Fordifications tutorial on upgrading to power steering and I have one question.....I understand that I can use a 73-79 steering column, but my 76 donor is automatic, and the 72 is manual. Am I able to swap just the steering shaft from one column to the other??

[FORDification]

There is no difference in the shafts between a manual or automatic transmission. The difference is whether or not it has power or manual steering. Since the manual steering box is several inches shorter than the PS box, the manual-steering shaft needs to be several inches longer to compensate. As long as your donor truck has the same steering setup (manual/power) as yours, it should be a direct bolt in, aside from some minor wiring rearranging that'll need to be done.

[oldhalftons]

I'm planning on using a 73 steering shaft in my 69 when I swap the bendix box for a saginaw/ford box (rebuilt bendix boxes are Mucho $$$$) the great power steering tutorial says all I'll have to do is cut a few threads off the steering wheel end to mount my 69 steering wheel.

[willowbilly3]

You might be better off to just plan on shortening the shaft you have. There are several different lenghts of columns in the 67-72 years and the chances the 73 and newer using the same as a 69 are slim. A few months ago I put power steering on my 69 and had 4 columns apart before I had enough parts. If you use the 71 and newer shaft in the older coulmn you need to hack off the top so the horn button will go on(as Keith mentioned) I have done 3 of these swaps just changing the shaft and the only one that wasn't a confusion of shafts and shaft lengths was when I ordered the right shaft from ford.

[blue70]

how hard is it to take the shaft out of the colum? and is there any surprises i should look out for.

[willowbilly3]

If you have the column out, all you have to do is pull the steering wheel and it should slide right out. It's best to pull the steering wheel after you have the column out or the shaft will be falling out while removing the column.

[blue70]

thanks willowbilly i hope to get started this weekend weather permitting.