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The FJ-55 is a lot of truck to move around on the trails. Now start putting a heavy amount of resistance from the rocks on your front end with no power steering. You'd think maybe Popeye would be better off driving your rig! Lance Williams has the answer. Check it out.

Add Power Steering to Your FJ-55

Parts:

• Power Steering Box
• Remote Power Steering fluid reservoir
• Power Steering Cooler
• Power Steering Pump
• 2'x2'x14" plate steel (to use for fabricating new steering box mount/shock tower
• Hoses: High pressure from pump to box, low pressure from box to cooler, low pressure from cooler to reservoir, low pressure from reservoir to pump.

Tools:

• Arc welder
• Drill
• Circular Saw
• Puller (For Pitman arm. Get a big one)
• Tin snips
• Oxygen/Acetylene Torch (optional)
• Impact wrench (optional)
• Rubber mallet

Consumables:

• Arc welding rods
• Metal cutting blades
• Power steering fluid
• Paint

The whole project, including all the planning and bracket design took me one weekend to do. I had the help of two very good cruiserhead friends, Rob Crawford and Wisam Karim. Two weeks later I came up with a better bracket design (the one used here) and did the whole thing alone in less than one day. The difference in steering amazed me. It is easier to steer than my fiance's Dodge Neon! It does not feel overpowered like some of the GM conversions I've seen. In fact, it feels perfectly stock and looks it. Parallel parking is no problem now and it doesn't over-steer at highway speeds. Off road performance is even better, with the wrist-breaking bump steer virtually eliminated.

I'm not sure how it would perform with 38 inch tires and a front locker. If your plans include these items you should look into the Scout or Saginaw setup, as they also eliminate the relay rod that larger tires seem to catch on.

End Notes:
1. Bracket design: I am not an engineer. All measurements were taken with a tape measure and are not intended to be precise (they worked for me). Locating the holes on the back piece (#5) was very difficult, mine were off about 1mm and had to be drilled out larger to accommodate the bolts.

2. I used a Power Steering Box out of an 85 Toyota 4x4 pickup. This bracket was designed to fit the mounting angle of this box. Different years of power steering boxes may have different mounting angles. Be sure to check the mounting angle of your box before fabricating the new mount.

3. Total number of turns lock to lock on my new box is 3.5, about the same as my manual box was. I have run this setup since December of 1997 with no problems.

On to the Install!

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