Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Go to U-Pull with your tool kit and harvest the steering box from a '96-98 Jeep Grand Cherokee, INCLUDING THE BOLTS that hold it to the frame, because the original ones usually break in half inside the frame from rust damage.  I go online first and make sure they have some Jeeps in inventory, and of course I live 5 min. from the one in East Bethel, so go there.  There's one in Rosemount for the southern metro.  Yes, they're typically high mileage, but I've never had an issue with the box even if it has over 100K miles.  They used to be $25 but now are up to about $35-40 + the $2 entry fee to get into the yard to pull it.

-Buy a Lares 200 rag joint from a mid/late 70's Chevy pickup.  Usually run about $40-50

-Buy Borgeson fitting set 925122 that allows you to use the stock power steering hoses to convert from the JGC metric fittings

-Buy two new power steering hoses.  They're cheap and good insurance to replace the 50 year old ones.  Run's about $30 for the set.

-Remove the old steering box pitman arm.  Usually the toughest part of the install for me for some reason, as it's usually fused on.  Sometimes they just fall off though.

-Remove the rag joint (Disconnect the battery or the horn may go off on you since the rag joint is part of the grounding system!)

 -Remove the old steering box lines (Keep track of the high and low pressure hose orientation) and remove the box from the frame with the 3 bolts.  As noted, 2 of the 3 typically snap in half and need to be fished from inside the frame since they are mostly rusted away.

-Bolt in the new box using the bolts that came with it.

-Reinstall the pitman arm and tighten the nut with a BF breaker bar.

-Install the new rag joint.

-Install the Borgeson fittings and new hoses

That's it.  Can be done in a couple of hours and makes a huge steering improvement.  The turn cancel works with no issues when the steering wheel returns to home.

Here's an old article from Hot Rod that gives more info:  LINK TO HOT ROD ARTICLE  There's a million other articles on the internet about this swap too.

Well worth doing for less than $150, and I'll never drive a Chevelle with the stock steering box ever again!