I am doing a Lo-buck, driver 40 Dodge. original flat head 6. T-5 trans, 8 3/4 w/ 3.55's. I'm planning to convert the front to disc brakes, dual master cylinder. My question is, what are the rest of you guys running for steering boxes. or have you swapped Rack & pinion into it?

I am not sure about a 40 Dodge truck but I just completed a rack & pinion setup on my 56 Coronet. This was an engineering nightmare and probably not worth the time or effort. Is the truck a rear steer setup (tie rods behind the axle)? If it is rear steer I can send you pics of my setup, but witnh he rear steer it was impossible to make connect the steering shaft to the box safely without using a $600 Wizard offset steering box.

Search on "Jeep steering Box" conversion. The Jeep Grand Cherokee uses a quick ratio (12.7:1) steering box that might get you where you want to be. I used a Borgeson conversion kit ( using the same delphi box in my C3 corvette and it was one of the best conversions I ever did. I have seen them used in Chevelles, C3 Corvettes ect. I could not make it fit in my 56 Dodge Coronet but the truck might be a different layout.

OK, so is your 40 Dodge a truck or a car?
The truck has leaf springs and a beam axle, a rack & pinion steering doesn't work well with a beam axle.
If your 40 is a car, the car has independent front suspension, and a rack & pinion from a late 90s Chevy Caviler works fairly well. They are available in power and non-power. Gene

if it is a rear steer unit the cheapest unit is a toyota pickup steering box...

My bad, I didn't specify truck or car, my car is a coupe, stock independent frt suspension. w/ fat man drop spindles, yrs back I remember PlyDo used to sell a rack & pinion kit, utilizing a Cavalier rack.

Having done a couple of Cavalier racks, there are a few things you want to look into.

As far as design, the Mopar (Plymouth, Dodge, Desoto, & Chrysler) front suspension was pretty much unchanged between 1939 and 1953. Most info available for the 46-48 will apply to your car (there is a lot of info concerning the 46-48 available.)

1) I used an 80s V8 Mopar power steering pump, the pump pressure is a little high for the rack and at highway speeds, the car tended to be a bit touchy on steering. Some kind of pressure reduction or by pass would help a bunch.
2) The Cavalier rack uses a center mount inner tie rod connection point. If you make a simple center link to attach to your existing original tie rod ends, at their original mounting position, it will eliminate a lot of challenges. Tie rod ends for your Dodge are the same ends as used in the 73-93 Dodge trucks.
3) The rack tends to make a longer turning radius then the original car had. You can move the mounting holes on the steering arms closer to the spindle (drill & ream the tapered holes) or you can learn to live with it. If you have not driven the car, you probably won't know the difference, but if you have driven the car, you will notice a difference.
4) When you change to the rack, it would be a good time to update to a modern steering column as well. Other wise, you will be dealing with modifying the original column in addition to running new steering connections to the rack.


There is a lot of info concerning rack conversions over on the www.jalopyjournal.com HAMB board, do a search for 46-48 Plymouth steering. There used to be a bunch of stuff here, but I believe most of it has dropped off and is gone. Gene

fat man fab has the cavliere kit,,,the older kits use to use datsun tie rod ends with a bushing,,,now the kits use a 2004 2005 exploror tie rod end,,, i can get you the part number if your interested,,, i just revamped my cavliere steering and installed fat man dropped spindles,,,new stock spec eaton coil springs,,on my 40 dodge coupe

I went to the Fat Man webpage. I couldn't find any info. If you have the kit part number that would be great.