It was time to address the steering. I didn't have enough room to push the Toyota IFS steering box ahead enough for adequate clearance between tie rod and drag link. With the LF at full stuff and tires steered to the left, the tie rod and drag link would hit. Not good. You can see from the first picture that, even at full droop, the two bars would cross.
Nothing exciting or Earth shattering here. Basically ripped off the IFS box, had to cut my shock tower and some other brackets off also.
I decided to use an FJ80 steering box. The first step was to see where it would need to go on the frame, which I then found out the power steering pump would have to be moved for clearance. I built the bracket to use a Toyota 4cyl pickup pump. I kind of lucked out, was able to drill new holes 1.5" lower than the existing holes. This gave me (barely) enough clearance from pump to steering box.
Cut out some 1/4" plate to weld on the frame to help brace for steering box mounting. I plated inside and outside of the frame.
I was able to use the 2wd 4cyl Yota pickup high pressure hose with a little modification to the bends in the hard line.
A few things are left to do..I need a slightly larger power steering belt, need to shorten the steering input shaft, modify the shock tower and weld it back on, weld brake line brackets back onto the frame, etc.
After a quick flex check, the drivers side spring can go inverted pretty far and there is still a slight gap between pitman arm and tie rod. I still have to put together some bump stops, but its nice to see there's no contact even when its inverted further than it would normally go..
It sucked wheeling before, always worried about the tie rod and drag link hitting. Im almost certain I messed up the old IFS box last time out because of the contact. Hopefully this works better!