Cruisers have a personality and anyone who drives one can relate. The rattles, the way they handle, even that strange gear oil/exhaust/fuel smell we have all come to love play a part. I tend to forget all the details of how I drive my Cruiser until someone else is in the driver's seat. What comes natural when you drive your own Cruiser can't be put into words. How do you instruct someone the best way to brace for a bump, let the truck steer left, relax and turn just enough right so you can do it all over again? How can you describe the way the truck reacts to ruts in the highway at seventy miles per hour? Up until now, I just went with "be careful" and maybe even a "good luck". Sure, with power steering, you still need to drive it like a Cruiser but it is a lot easier. I wonder why I didn't do this sooner.

My Cruiser is a 1978 FJ40, with the 2F engine, and a SUA with 4" TPI springs. The steering was in very good shape before I started and almost all of the stock components had recently been replaced. There was very little play in the wheel and at highway speeds, the Cruiser would track comfortably. Off highway, I was the weak link. You just can't wheel the manual steering without being fatigued at the end of the day. I started by taking off the front bib, driver's side fender, center arm, relay rod, and drag link. The old manual steering box support/mount was removed by drilling out the rivets.
To make room for the 4 bolt, 4.25 turn, Model 800, Saginaw power steering box (GM part number 5691676), you need to drill a 3" hole in the front of the front cross member and a 2" hole in the rear of the cross member. Use a good gear reduction drill because your handyman drill you got from Sears is going to overheat and melt. I chose to recess the box into the cross member and mount it level to the frame. This allows the steering shaft yoke to mount directly to the box, eliminates any binding, and the, very scary in my opinion, spud shaft.
The mounting and scab plate design is similar to Butchbuilt's design. 4x4labs was making the plates for Butch at one point. It is overbuilt and with the reinforcement down the frame rail, I feel confident the power steering will not overstress the frame. The plates were cut from 1/4 steel and the grey metal you see around the plate is from sandblasting. Also, you can makes the cuts with a pneumatic cutoff and a handful of discs, it just takes awhile.
The two lower mounting points for the box are even with the bottom of the frame. I drilled two 7/8 inch holes through both plates and the frame. The holes ended up just above the hanger but cut through the lower part of the frame. That makes it easy to weld both rods. In the picture you can see the 15/16 steel rod before I cut it to length. Atlas metal had a lot of sizes and even had some that had been drilled out already.
In this picture you can see the top plate added to reinforce the assembly. The top rear bolt is just above the frame so the plate can only run up to this point. The top front bolt is about 1/4 inch higher and will clear the plate. This also allows you to weld twice along the top inside plate. You can also see the plate added to the opposite frame horn just in case. With the bumper in place, the conversion will be even stronger. Ace Hardware had grade 8 7/16 bolts. You will need two 4 1/2", one 1 1/2", and one 2 " bolts.
I have seen some installs that use washers stacked up to mount the box. That is very scary in my opinion. This design uses the 15/16 rod on all four mounting points. Approximately 1/4 on the top rear, 3/4 on the top front location and, if you mount the top first, you can thread in the lower two rods to the exact length. I tack welded everything with the box in place and the box bolted at all four locations.
The steering shaft is a collapsible Borgensen unit form TPI. You can purchase the yokes from Spicer and the shaft from the hot rod world and probably save a few bucks. The bearing is a universal I picked up on eBay but you can get them cheaper from NorthernTool or Grainger. The stock shaft needs to be cut and sanded down to fit the 3/4 bearing. This is probably due to the shaft being metric and the bearing being standard. Also, the stock mounting pattern is smaller than the bearing. You can either file the holes in the bearing or widen the pattern on the firewall. I chose to widen the holes on the firewall. The stock shaft was cut right at 3" before the bearing was in place. I welded the yoke to the shaft with two plug welds and a solid weld around the yoke.
 
The widest pump and pulley I found was from an AMC Eagle. The wide Cruiser belts fit the AMC pulley but are not perfect. I may look for a different pulley if the belt shows any problems. Currently it is not 100% in the groove and sits about a 1/16 above. I doubt this is an issue but thought I would mention it. I can turn the steering wheel full lock and the belt does not slip. The belt ended up being 52" long.
I mounted the power steering pump above the smog pump with a bracket I bought from JT Outfitters. You do need to remove the two head bolts and I have heard that isn't a good idea. I removed the bolts slowly, alternating from one to the other and I re-torqued both bolts to spec. No leaks yet but we will see. The bracket is a good design but I was surprised we had to cut and re-weld one of the tabs on it to make it fit.
 
 
The hoses were a bit of a headache. I had planned on going to the parts store to find some random application that fit the Cruiser. Problem is, the AMC pump uses o-rings, and the older style box uses flare fittings. That and most of the parts stores around here really don't care any more and the guys that did know have since retired. I cut my losses and went to AAI, a local sprint car supplier. They brazed part of the AMC hose to a fitting. We ran AN fittings and braided hose from there. The low pressure line is 3/8 inch ATF rated hose (ATF/Power steering fluid will eat through anything else). The low pressure line in the picture is way too long because I got excited and had to hook everything up. I will add a power steering cooler when the UPS guy shows up. The orange bit by the box is a fire sleeve. The header is a good inch from the hose but I didn't want to chance it.
In this picture you can see the drop pitman arm and the drag link I picked up from Mark's Off Road. The stock drag link would work fine if you cut it and tapped it for the SAE tie rod on one end. I had been collecting parts to minimize downtime and didn't mind supporting the Cruiser shops instead of fabricating. Mark offers a new SAE tie rod end, the drop pitman, and the drag link complete with metric on one end and SAE on the other. His kit worked great for me.

Thank you to everyone on www.ih8mud.com and www.pirate4x4.com for all the help and information. I had read up on this conversion so much before I started that when it came time to do it, I already knew what needed to be done. If you haven't driven a Cruiser with power steering, you need to. I can't believe how much of a difference this made. The conversion took me about a week to complete including going to my other job eight hours Monday - Friday and a trip to the treasure yard on one day. I ran into one problem with the box not turning full right. Turned out, air in the lines can cause this. Even though I had driven the truck around town, I had to jack up the front wheels and run the box lock to lock a few times to bleed the system. Thank you dieselcruiserhead for the fix. Wheeling is fun again!! Power steering is done!!