The best in the '70s may not be enough now.

[GPster]

I'll take a look, I may have one or more. If I do you can have it.

I'll trade that Vega box for one. Like I said I've had that box since the early '80s and it was off a "Total" so there's not many miles on it. It has spent most of it's life in a box on the shelf til I mounted on my frame in the winter of '98 but it was under 2 feet of water during the flood of '04. All of this figuring has got me to thinking that the easiest way to build the Jeepster is to continue what I was doing. When you get your barn sorted out are you going to get Fat Cat to make the "Parts for Sale" section to work again? GPster

[GPster]

Josh needed some spending money

I would think that a grandson that neede spending money would have his hand out to see if a paintbrush fit it. How's the Shelby lawn mowing deal working out? I'm taking notes, our oldest grandchild is only six. GPster

[enjenjo]

Paintbrush fits it, but he gets more on himself than he does on the house.  Shelby is doing a good job on the lawn. She's a bit slow, but getting better.

[C9]

When grandson was 9 I taught him how to operate the lawn tractor.

Then I offered him five bucks to cut the lawn.
He did a nice job on the small front lawn and the big back lawn.

Three days later he asked if he could mow again.
(He liked driving the tractor since it didn't really seem like work.)
Another five bucks.

Two days later he took it upon himself to mow the lawns again.
Five more bucks.

Yeah, the lawn was a touch scalped and it cost me three times, but it was worth it.
Didn't have to mow the * thing for about three weeks....

[C9]

I did a little more looking and checking on the steering box install mentioned above.
The box we used was a 525 and not a 122.

At the time, all we had to go on were silhouette's of steering boxes and not photos.

Below is a pic of a 525.
Things to note are the wider bolt pattern than the Vega as well as slightly larger size.

Even so, the box is a good fit for the SBC in the 29 Model A sedan.
The SBC is in the usual location and as mentioned early style stock side mounts are used.  These are not the real early (55 etc.), but the early style mounts on the block with three bolts mounts.
The steering box is hung a little lower (1/2 - 1") than is usually done with the Vega or 122, but it has good clearance.

The only other thing that needs be done is to heat and bend the 'S' shaped pitman arm so that it's a little higher.
The pitman will work as is and the guys building the car will probably leave it as it is, but I'd bend it so as to get the draglink horizontally aligned with the panhard.
It doesn't take much.

I'm guessing the aftermarket pitmans will go right on this box.
As far as GM is concerned there doesn't seem to be too many different pitman spline patterns.

If I get a chance I'll try to shoot some pics of the box install later this week and post them.

I apologize for any confusion between the 122 and 525.

Seems like you never can do enough research....

[GPster]

At the time, all we had to go on were silhouette's of steering boxes and not photos.Below is a pic of a 525.
Things to note are the wider bolt pattern than the Vega as well as slightly larger size.If I get a chance I'll try to shoot some pics of the box install later this week and post them.Seems like you never can do enough research....

Thanks for the additional pictures. With the problems I have with no depth perseption I can tell more about an item if it's alone and not confused with stuff around it. Add this to your research. Chevy ( and probably a lot of other GM products did nit start using the "Rag Joint" and collapseable steering column feature until '58. Up until then the box and column were one piece so that would help date those boxeswith splines on the column end. Josh hasn't un-covered a box in Enjenjo's stuff yet so the Vega box could go your way also. Thanks for adding interest to the subject. GPster

[GPster]

Where did you come up with the pictures? the reason I'm asking is on the top of the MB140 (VEGA) picture there is a caption that says that it share mounting dimensions with the 122, 525, 605 and 800. If this is correct it opens up a warehouse of possibilities. GPster

[C9]

Fairly sure the pics were borrowed from the Flaming River site - and maybe Borgeson.

Here's a pic of the 800.
I appears to have fairly narrow mounting bosses.
Look close behind and to the sides of the pitman shaft casting area and you'll see what I think are a couple of mounts.
The raised up and blanked off from the right side (American left side steering), the same side you're looking at may be blind hole mounts.

It's strange to me that the 800 would fit the Vega mount pattern.
(I did copy the mfg. site pic description word for word in the title - just adding jpg so as not to confuse it with the original BMP.)

Vega did have a power steering option.  I always thought it would have been the smaller 605 box.

I did get up to see the 525 box install in the Model A frame I talked about above, but forgot my camera.
I can go back there this afternoon if the pics would help.

We ended up moving a 33-34 pickup cab and home-made bed up to the shop where the Model A frame is.  The funny thing here is the owner got his 29 Model A sedan home and the darned thing drives so nice that he's going to clean it up, paint it and put a roof insert in.  The car was an almost finished resto and he decided not to use it for a body source.  He probably will later just in case the resto guys were worried....

Anyway, the pickup cab and nice home-made short bed look good on the rolling around A frame.  The extra width will be squared away visually with an outside exhaust system similar to AV8's Bluey.

[GPster]

I did get up to see the 525 box install in the Model A frame I talked about above, but forgot my camera.
I can go back there this afternoon if the pics would help.Anyway, the pickup cab and nice home-made short bed look good on the rolling around A frame.  

I don't need a picture of the steering box mounted but I'm surprised you didn't offer a picture of the truck. That look is becoming a popular school (skool) of thought as Gibbon is now offering a kit like that. But for me $8500.00 kind of misses the reality of cheap. I think I'll go and look at the Flaming River site and then maybe go borrow a Hollender manual. GPster

[C9]

Here's a pic of the trucks before they were moved.
The pic taken at the end of last summer before I met the owner.

The faded red one is in pretty good shape.
The one on the right is coming unglued and maybe two of the fenders would be usable.  The rest is mostly bent up junk.

The owner had thoughts of channeling the red truck over the A frame, but with the already done chop, interior ergonomics would be sadly lacking.
Especially in the height dept.
The owners 5'11" tall and had a tough time with the buckets that are already in the cab and had an almost as tough a time doing the ingress and egress bit with a pair of nice roadster seats that were tossed in as an experiment.

[GPster]

The faded red one is in pretty good shape.
The one on the right is coming unglued and maybe two of the fenders would be usable.  The owner had thoughts of channeling the red truck over the A frame, but with the already done chop, interior ergonomics would be sadly lacking.

I'd say he's in good shape. Make longer doors using his extras and make the cab longer. Then shorten the new bed to look good. If he wants to be real low the "Z" the frame. Any more than a 4" channel will be a real killer. Borgeson has the pictures of steering boxes on their site. Flaming River has some too but it gets real confusing when it gets to the 605. I think their picture is of the 605 that's been converted to use in a '55 - '57 chevy. GPster

[GPster]

OK, let's carry this a bit further. Both of the junkyards that I frequent got hit had by the last 2 floods. One scraped everything and now hasn't got anything older than '90. The other one lost everything on the low ground and it's questionable weither there's anything on the high ground and everything in the woods is older than '70. That plus the stock car guys around here have picked over all of the rear-wheel drive GM intermediates. On top of that the only one I know of that usaed the Hollander manual has stashed his old ones. There has been talk of the "A" and "G" chassis of the late '70s and early '80s sharing a lot of parts with the S-10. Would the steering box be one of those things? While the sun was shinning (yesterday morning) before the rain I got underneath the Jeepster to look. The frame looks OK except for the bottom plate of the "Top Hat" design. It appears to be saveable  so while I'm in a good mood I need to proceed with my original design. GPster

[enjenjo]

As Jay mentioned, and 805 Power steering box will fit too, the bolt pattern is the same. It is a bit larger than a 605, but in most cases will fit. The S10s used 805 boxes. I have several of them if you can use one, I still have not found any 605 boxes in my junk. Give the length of your piman arm, and I can try to match it up, the 805 has a larger spline than the smaller boxes.

[GPster]

As Jay mentioned, and 805 Power steering box will fit too, the bolt pattern is the same. It is a bit larger than a 605, but in most cases will fit. The S10s used 805 boxes. I have several of them if you can use one, I still have not found any 605 boxes in my junk. Give the length of your piman arm, and I can try to match it up, the 805 has a larger spline than the smaller boxes.

From the pictures that I can find to compare between the 605 and 800 boxes there seen to be a lot of the 800 box in front of the pitman arm. My box is mounteg parralel with the centerline of the chassis nut right at a place where the frame narrows and I'm affraid that the front of the 800 box would have serious impact on the frame. I probably need to keep looking for a 605. Anyway The vega pitman arm drops down a little but the arc it swings is 5 3/4". It's sunny today so maybe I'll get Linda to scare-up the camera and I'll take a picture. I don't explain angles as well as Bob Paulin. GPster

[GPster]

I can explain better than I can take a picture.  Here are the pictures.
GPster