coilover conversion and steering gears q...

[florida4x4]

Ive been dreaming about installing some coilovers and was wondering about what to do with the steering shaft... It looks like it will be right in the way and prolly the best idea is to move the steering gear to the inside of the frame. The crossmember below the fan belts is kinda in the way but I can deal with moving or removing it. The big problem seems to be that once I move the gearbox inboard the mounting tabs will be on the wrong side and a complicated mount will have to be fabbed.

Since I am tooling up to build crossover steering linkage and will have to seek a 2wd box anyway, is there a factory steering gear that bolts on the inside of the frame and has the pitman arm positioned correctly for crossover steering? Thanks all for any ideas!

 

[85m1009]

I still was able to run my steering box in the stock location and the coils clear the shaft by at least 1 1/2''. I do not believe the gen 1 and 2's are that much different as far as the steering is concerned.