OK got the old box off. Had to use the ol' blue tipped wrench. The box is now junk. The bottom rear bolt "leg" was broke is the reason someone welded it on. Wow I could have come up with a better idea than that! Now I'm trying to figure out if I want to go power or not. I have a '78 K10 that I can get the gear, pump and hoses off of , but I don't know what shape they are in. I think for $450 for a manual steering box I am better off going to power steering. It would be alot easier to steer those "33's I've got on there now.
you should be thinking about putting some better support to the inside of the frame when you put the p/s in esp if those 33" tires are wide. The reason is your frame will more than likely crack around the box even with the adaptor plate betwee the box and the frame. If you are running a 350 a/t that means that you have removed the crossmember that ran under the bellhousing. therefore you have no support from the small frt crossmember under the rad to the rear trans crossmember. a 2wheel drive has that heavy frt crossmember for the frt suspension which supports the frame in that area.
I solved that problem by installing the eng mounting crossmember from a 67 4 x 4, fits right in there.
if you don't there is a lot of stress in that area of the frame as the rear of the frt springs also mount in that area
I can supply a pic of the crossmember if you require to see what I am talking about
ron
