A lot of people have asked me lately about the Toyota Power Steering Conversion for 1953-1956 Ford F100 pickup trucks. The truth is, I haven’t driven a truck with one installed, but a lot of people have. From what I can tell, it’s a great conversion. If you want to keep your straight axle, there really isn’t a better way to go to add power steering.
The swap is fairly simple. And, it costs under $700 for the kit at the time this article was written. You basically remove your stock steering box and column. Then add the bracket from the kit and bolt up the new Toyota steering box in the same location as your original steering box. Then add the supplied pitman arm to the Toyota box. The stock drag link mounts to the new pitman arm the same as the original. You’ll have to hook up power steering hoses to the box. One line will be pressure and one line will be a return line.
The steering column may be a bit of a challenge. You’ll need to modify the stock steering column or use an aftermarket column. Either way, you’ll attach the shaft of your steering column to the shaft on the Toyota box with a u-joint.
The shaft on the Toyota box should be a 11/16″ diameter – 36 spline. One end of the u-joint you will need will have that size coupler on one end.
You will choose the other end of the u-joint depending on the steering column that you use.
