There are many indisputably fabulous things about classic trucks, but their Stone Age steering isn’t one. Maybe it’s not so bad if you keep the flathead six and just do a resto job, but what if you want to swap in power steering, modify the front suspension, or add a tilt steering column? What else must you do if you shoehorn in a V-8 and the old column and linkage are in the way?
These and other more pesky little problems (opportunities) arise during practically any classic truck buildup. We certainly had to solve a bunch of them when we dropped a chubby Mopar 360 V-8 into a vintage Dodge where a skinny old flathead six used to live. We wanted to modernize the Dodge’s dinosaur steering anyway, but the engine swap left us no choice. Power steering was on our wish list, too. The best solution seemed to be scrapping the entire original system and starting from scratch. Fortunately, the combo of a trick new tilt column from CJ’s Rods and Machines and top-quality linkage components from Borgeson Universal made the task relatively painless. Even more important, the new system is safe and reliable.