1992 Ford Ranger steering

[JustAToken]

I am building my first Ranger, a 1992 Ranger using a 2.3L turbo engine from a 1988 Thunderbird but the part that I am currently stuck on is the steering. My Ranger came with power steering from the factory but I have decided to replace this with a manual steering box (that I purchased from someone on here, thanks if you are reading this!). My problem is that the spline count on the input to the factory power steering box is different than the new manual steering box that I purchased. There is a shaft that runs from between the firewall to the steering box (that I believe is called an intermediate shaft) and the spline count on my factory one does not match up to the splines on the new manual steering box that I have. The spline count on my factory steering box is 29, I counted 15 in the steering shaft (but part of it was flat and smooth, it looks like it was designed that way). The manual steering box has a spline count of 25. I have been stuck on this for several days now and I do not want to force it or weld it so I hope someone has some suggestions or solutions. Thank you to everyone in advance!

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Hitting up a local salvage yard may be your best bet. I swapped my 87 Ranger manual box over to a power steering box from an 89 Bronco II along with the BII's steering shaft, and the shafts were a bolt-in swap. Salvage yard hunting usually pays off for things like this.

Not sure if you have it or not, but the pitman arms are different on the power steering vs non-power steering gearboxes. At least they are on the 87-89 models that I used on my swap.



GB

 

[BlackBII]

The ranger manual steering box uses a 3/4 30 spline input shaft. This is very common on GM and Chrysler vehicles. Look for an early 90's Jeep Cherokee intermediate shaft, it'll fit on your steering box.

Found a 3/4 30 spline shaft on a Jeep Cherokee today. Luckily the DD shafts between an '89 ranger and first gen Cherokee are the same and it made for an easy swap.

Manual vs power

Cherokee shaft on bottom, ranger shaft on top

Both shafts shortened; left is Cherokee and goes to the steering box, right is Ranger and goes to steering column

Completed shaft. I used the rangers shafts' plastic inner sleeve fitted over the Cherokee shaft and rubber outer sleeve on both

 

[JustAToken]

I do have the manual steering pitman arm to go with the manual box. So would I be better searching for a Jeep shaft or should I be looking for a factory manual steering Ranger? Thanks again!

 

[BlackBII]

I do have the manual steering pitman arm to go with the manual box. So would I be better searching for a Jeep shaft or should I be looking for a factory manual steering Ranger? Thanks again!

If you can find a Ranger manual steering shaft, use that. But in my experience, Rangers with manual steering are hard to find.

Using the bottom half of the Cherokee shaft works fine. You could also just order a Borgeson 3/4 30 spline u-joint and weld it onto your current shaft, though you may need to extend it a bit as the Ranger manual shaft is a few cm longer than the power steering shaft.

 

[JustAToken]

Alright, I'll look around and see what I can find. The worst part is I had a 1992 Ranger that was manual steering from the factory but I ended up selling it to a friend who needed a truck. He put a 5 inch exhaust up the back of the cab with a tractor flapper on top and ended up selling it again haha.