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Mini-Truck Power Steering on a 1971 FJ40

I have yet to see a write up on installing a complete mini-truck power steering (no Saginaw pump) in an early (to 9/72) Cruiser keeping the STOCK steering column, and STOCK alternator so here you go. Note: this installation requires some welding!

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!

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. Now lets strip the front of the engine. Remove the F alternator and tensioning bracket. Leave the lower bracket bolted to the block. This bracket will be used later as part of the power steering pump bracket. See Fig. 3.
4. Remove the 4 blade metal fan and pulley, then disconnect all coolant lines from the water pump. Remove the 4 bolts that hold the pump and remove it.
5. Clean all the old gasket material from the front of the block.
6. Use a new gasket for the water pump. 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 the bolts and thread sealant on the very bottom bolt. It penetrates the water jacket!
7. Attach the two groove 2F water pump pulley temporarily to the water pump with a couple of 8mm x 1.25 bolts.
8. 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.
9. 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 ten...
10. Attach a pipe wrench EXACTLY as shown in Fig. 4 to the nut, making sure it is adjusted TIGHT!  Make sure to chain it down! 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...
11. 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 to clean them up before threading in the puller bolts.  Use a 8mm x 1.25 tap for this.
12. 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.
13. If your front timing cover gasket or crank pulley seal is leaking, now is a good time to replace them!
14. 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.

Making a bracket for the mini-pump

Ok that completes the easy part! Next thing is the power steering pump bracket modifications.

Fabbing a pump bracket

1. Remove the idler pulley bracket and the pump from the mini-truck pump bracket. See Fig. 6 for what I mean.
2. Remove the tensioning bolt and pulley from the idler bracket. Thread the stud back into the pump bracket as shown in Fig. 7 . Then thread the adjuster bolt back into the stud. This will become part of our power steering belt tensioner.
3. Remove the OEM alternator and bracket and clean them up if you have not already done so.
4. Find some 1/8"- 1/4" thick scrap metal to make another mounting tab to weld to the pump bracket. I used a handy L bracket from some other project.
5. I held it up against the existing tab on the mini-truck bracket and traced out the shape. I used a jig saw with a bi-metal blade to rough cut it out. A grinder cleaned up the edges.  Set this aside for now. See Fig. 8-9.
6. We now need to determine the spacing of the pump pulley in relation to the crank pulley. We want our belt to run smooth and straight. With the three groove pulley we want to use the  middle groove for the pump.
7. Install the pump back on the PS bracket. Tighten all four bolts.
8. Hold this bracket/pump up against the alternator bracket so that the existing mounting tab is in front of the alternator bracket. Insert a long bolt through the tab and through the alternator bracket. Tighten this down so the PS bracket is tight.
9. Place the pulley on the power steering pump.
10. Place a steel ruler or other known good straight edge across the power steering pump pulley face and extend it down to the crank pulley. Under the following conditions the two edges will be in perfect alignment: ALL the planets are in alignment, your wife is a super model, and you just won the lottery... in three states... on the same day...
11. Since none of those conditions exist in my garage I had to do a bit of fabbing to get the alignment needed.
12. First I placed some washers between the existing mounting tab on the mini-truck bracket and the existing alternator bracket until the pulley edges were pretty close. I removed the washers, measured their combined thickness, and found a piece of scrap steel that was just slightly thicker. I welded this to the inside of the tab then used the existing tab hole to drill through the new piece. Some grinder worked made it look stock. This was bolted back in place and checked. It was good! See the tab on the right in Fig. 10.
13. Now pull the nut off the long bolt going through the alternator bracket. Slide the mounting tab, you made from scrap in step 4-5, over the bolt and up against the alternator bracket. Put the nut back on and hand tighten it against the tab to hold it in position. Check pulley alignment again. If it is good then tighten the nut with a wrench. If it's not you may need to grind some metal off the spacer you welded on in step 12. Check the alignment again, if it's still good then tack weld the new mounting tab to the power steering bracket. Check the alignment again. If it's still good remove the bracket and burn the new mounting tab in. See the left tab in Fig. 10.

14. Next I made up an adjuster stop from some scrap. This is what the adjuster screw will press on when adjusting the belt. It fits under the long water pump bolt that originally help the spacer for the old alternator adjuster. It's just a piece of tubing sleeve welded to a small piece of 16ga plate. See Fig. 11 .
15. Fig. 12 shows a test fitting to make sure the adjuster works and there are clearances for all moving parts. So far so good.
16. After mounting the pump in the bracket and installing the pulley I started measuring for the 'custom' belts. I had a really long belt from who knows what. I cut this belt  and wrapped it around the pulleys. I set the adjustment for the alternator and the power steering pump in the middle of their range then pulled the belt ends as tight as possible, and had my wife mark where they overlapped. I took this marked belt to the local Auto Zone and had them find two belts that were close to what I had measured.
17. I started seeing how belts aligned up. See Fig. 13. They looked pretty good, but I will probably have to fine tune with washers when I get the motor running. The belts are as follows: The power steering pump belt goes over the rear water pump pulley and the middle 3FE crank pulley. The alternator belt goes over the front water pump pulley, and the front 3FE crank pulley. The rear 3FE crank pulley is available for future stuff.

18. OK jump forward. I have the engine back in the frame and all the cooling stuff connected.
19. Next I had to fine a place to mount the remote reservoir. I first tried the radiator support frame, See Fig. 17, but because the hood comes down so far I would have had to remove the entire radiator and support to drill mounting holes and weld in captive nuts. Instead, after asking on MUD for ideas, I decided to mount it to the drivers inner fender. This was Jim C.'s suggestion.
20. I temporarily mounted the fender and apron. I spent some time finding a good spot for it and checking all the clearances. The perfect spot was straddling the support bracket for the fender. Nothing I can see mounts there. (Uh huh.... keep reading...)
21. After measuring the reservoir for size, I cut a 6" x 5" piece of 16 ga. See Fig. 18. I placed the reservoir on the plate and used the transfer punches to mark the mounting holes. The reservoir bolt holes are sized for 10mm bolts, so i drilled 7/16" holes in the plate.  I bolted the reservoir to the plate then took that to the truck to determine the angle I need to bend to match the inner fender. It turned out to be about 60 degrees.
22. I measured up from the bottom about 1.5 " and put a 60 degree bend in the metal.
23. Next I drilled two 1/4" holes in the plate far enough apart to go on each side of the support brace of the fender. Using the transfer punch I marked the holes for drilling on the inner fender.  See Fig. 19.
24. I drilled the holes, then welded in some 6mm captured nuts on the other side and bolted the bracket to the inner fender. It looks factory! See Fig. 20.
25. Being proud of myself, I posted the mounting pics in my build thread on IH8MUD. Jim C. quickly pointed out that the air cleaner is going to want to share that exact same space! Doh! See Fig. 21.
26. Grrrr.... So after mounting the air cleaner as I should have done in the first place, I came up with the third and final location for the reservoir which is shown in Fig. 22. This spot allowed me to use the low pressure hose from the pump to the reservoir without cutting it.  This spot does cover the hole in the inner fender for the turn signal wires, so I had to drill that out. I put a grommet in the hole to protect the wires.
27. Some follow up stuff: 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.

Adding/Mounting a Power Steering Cooler

1. Though the mini-truck does include a 'loop' cooler, I decided I needed a bit more cooling so acquired a small automatic transmission cooler from my wife's cousins husband who happens to own a recycling center. See Fig. 21.
2. Wanting this to get maximum air flow, I mounted it in front of the radiator to the screen on the bib. Since I used flexible rubber hose I will be able to lower the bib without having to remove the cooler. Plumbing it all up is in a later section.

Mounting the steering box/Modding the column

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 pedestal.
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. 28 .
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 grade 8 or better bolts, 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 and use clamps to temporarily position it. Do NOT drill the holes yet! There will be some adjusting to do.
10. Install the rag joint on the PS box.
11. Use a chop saw, hacksaw or angle grinder and cut the steering column shaft just above the worm gear. Smooth down the cut edge.
12. Install the bearing into the end of the column to support the shaft.
13. Put the column back into the truck. Secure it loosely with the support clamp.
14. Put the steering wheel back on and start playing around with the placement of the column. Once you have the placement figured out for your height and seat adjustment, mark the column and cut to final length.
15. Slide the weld on rag joint coupler onto the shaft and check the column for positioning one more time. Cut off more if needed.
16. Tack weld the coupler onto the shaft, remove the column from the truck and fully weld the coupler to the shaft on BOTH sides! If you are uncomfortable with this, let a professional do it!
17. Replace the column in the truck but this time attach it to the rag joint on the PS box. Leave the column mounting clamp loose.
18. Loosen the clamps holding the PS box to the mount and carefully position the box so that the column is straight and the box is centered on the mount. Tighten the column support bolts.
19. Carefully mark the holes in the mounting bracket. I used a set of transfer punches to get it as accurate as possible. Remove the box and drill the holes as accurately as possible. I recommend a drill press if you have one available.
20. Bolt the box down with grade 8 or better bolts, lock washers and use Loctite!.

Plumbing it all together

1. The mini-truck system you got is very easy to plumb. It consists of a reservoir, pump, steering box and cooler. A quick description of how the fluid flows: The reservoir feeds the pump low pressure oil via an oil resistant hose from the large nipple on the reservoir. This hose connects to the large hose barb on the pump. The pump increases the pressure to 1050 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.

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