Any gains with newer manual steering box for a '62?
 

I'm getting a '78 crossmember this weekend and just gathering parts and info for the rest of the retrofit and I want to keep manual steering, for now.

I've got a real tight steering box from a 68 or 9 chevy truck (can't remember which it came from), would there be any advantage using that over my original box?

Or do I need to switch to the newer box with CaptainFabs adapter to hook up to the '78 steering linkage I'm going to be using?

Sorry for all the questions, I've read a hundred threads and they all pertain to switching to power steering.

Re: Any gains with newer manual steering box for a '62?
 

I'm a manual steering guy; I don't really think there's an advantage either way. One of my trucks had a later ('78) box installed; you do need an adapter like you do with a P/S box, and the steering shaft needs to be shortened.

Anyway, it worked, but IIRC the later pitman arm was slightly different, or the box had a larger range of motion or something, so it would go a little bit over-center. (It was my fathers truck and that's what he said; I swapped it back to the correct box before I really did anything with it, so I can't really say for sure what was going on.) AFAIK, it should be the same as the later P/S boxes, so anything you need to do for/to them will need to be done for the manual one.

Hope this helps.