A few years ago I had heard that it was possible to use the power steering system from an AMC car in a CJ. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I didn't own a CJ and no one that I knew had one that needed conversion. Last year my brother bought a 1981 Scrambler (CJ8) from a mutual friend and I had my test subject. The Scrambler had oversized meats, a moderate lift, and an undersized aftermarket steering wheel. The wheel looked cool but the combination of the three made the Jeep very hard to control off road. With my brother's permission I decided to undertake the conversion. The conversion works like a charm, bolts on and requires only minor modifications.
The first thing you need s a donor power steering system. The Scrambler was a 1981 with the standard 258 straight six cylinder. The 258 is one of the few good things that AMC ever built so they put them in almost everything. I called the local salvage yard and asked if they had any 1981 AMC cars with a complete power steering system. I advised that I needed everything including:
- The power steering gear
- The pump with reservoir
- The hoses both pressure and return
- The pulley for the pump this is a double pulley 1 of which will drive the smog pump
- And especially all mounting brackets for both the pump and gearbox
An hour later they called back and advised that had everything sitting under the hood of a 1981 AMC Concord and would sell it all for $100.00. They even removed it from the vehicle for me. I bought it at lunch that day.
If you have little or no experience doing a manual to power steering conversion I recommend that you pull the unit from the donor vehicle yourself so you can see how it all goes together. I had done a few Bronco power steering conversions so I had a good feel for the setup they're all basically the same on the older vehicles. I picked the greasy mess up paid the man and hauled it back to the garage. I had called Autozone and had them run parts numbers on the hoses gears etc between the concord and the Jeep. I found that the gearbox and the hoses had different numbers but no one seemed to know what the difference was. I was pleased to see that all the parts looked virtually identical.
That night I began to pull the old system out, which involved the following:
- Remove the centerlink from the pitman arm. In layman's terms this means I disconnected the steering where the rod connects to the arm on the steering box. Always use a tie rod press instead of a pickle fork to do this unless you plan to replace the centerlink. Either tool is available at Auto Zone for around $10. Don't worry about removing the pitman arm from the gearbox as you will need to replace the pitman arm anyway.
- Jack up the front of the Jeep and put it on stands. One of the bolts for the steering box is also the bolt that holds the rear spring perch on the left spring.
- Carefully remove all but two of the bolts holding in the steering gear. Loosen the last two and watch the front spring perch to make sure it unloads safely.
- Remove the retaining bolt from the u-clamp that holds the steering rod onto the splines on the steering gearbox. To simplify this means disconnect the column rod from the gearbox. You'll need a punch and hammer to drift the bolt out.
- Pull the last two bolts holding the steering gear and slide the gear splines free of the column steering rod.
Now the old manual system should be removed.
Now lay the parts for both systems out on the garage floor being careful not to mix them up. Here is where you can begin to see the differences between the systems. The following is a list of the differences:
- The car power gearbox the outlets for the hoses are on top of the box. The Jeep gearboxes have the outlets angled off the side so the hoses don't hit the bottom of the grill. I sized this up and there is enough room to clear the hoses if you have either good fresh poly body mounts or a 1-inch or higher body lift. Fortunately the Scrambler hand new poly body mounts.
- The pump bracket displaces the smog pump and came equipped with the bracket mount making it possible to move the smog pump to a position on top of the power steering pump. There is no bracket with the manual set up as there is no pump.
- The pulley on the pump needs to be a double pulley since the smog pump piggybacks off of the power steering pump with its own small drive belt.
- The hoses will need to be bent a small amount with the pipe bender to clear the grill.
- pitman arm off of the manual system is not long enough to work so you will need a Jeep power steering pitman arm. People complain about the difficulty of finding this arm but I found one no problem at Jeeps unlimited in Erie Colorado cost $40.
On to installation:
I started by bolting the mounting brackets to the side of the power gearbox. Hold the gearbox and brackets up to the frame and you should be able to see how it all bolts on to the frame.
- Before bolting up the gearbox make sure to tighten down the pressure and return hoses to the outlets in the gearbox. I went ahead and replaced both hoses at zone for about $25 total with lifetime guarantee. If you reuse the old hoses replace the O-ring on the pressure line or it will leak.
- Bend the lines don using a tube bender so that they will clear the frame. Be careful not to kink the lines.
- now slide the whole assembly into place being sure to connect the steering rod to the splines on the gearbox. Make sure that the gearbox is in the center of its rotation and have a helper hold the steering wheel centered.
- bolt the assembly back to the frame always use grade 8 or stainless bolts here. Make sure to reattach the spring mount.
- Don't forget to replace the retaining bolt into the u-clamp in the steering rod and tighten
- Go ahead and install the new pitman arm and torque to specs found in your Chilton manual. Also attach the center link to the pitman. The shaft on the gearbox (sector shaft) is indented or indexed so you can only install the pitman arm one way.
- Now unbolt the air pump and slide the new power pump bracket into place you will need to pull some of the water pump bolts as they hold the bracket on. Bolt up the bracket.
- Attach the hoses to the back of the power steering pump and install the pump on the bracket.
- Wrestle the smog pump to its' spot above the power steering pump and install the lower mount bolt. Then install the upper slider-tensioned bar.
- install and tighten belts.
- fill the power steering pump with fluid and start the engine. Top off the fluid and turn the wheel from lock to lock 5 or six times to burp any air from the system. Initially the pump will wine but it should quiet down as the air is purged. Check the system for leaks and drive on!
Total cost of project:
- power steering system, $100
- hoses, 24
- pitman arm, 40
- belts, 10
- fluid, 5
- total 179
The cheapest aftermarket conversion I could find was $500 so we saved over $300. Total time to install 3 hours with proper tools.
