[nvrdone]

Leegreen: thanks for that info. It clarifys alot. I had not thought about the spring flattening out and the axle moving forward under compression.
1Project: I like the idea of the piston on the stock tie rod.
My whole idea on doing this project is that my original steering box is really worn with about 2.5 in. of free play. Its adjusted as tight as I can get it .Also the box is spaced out away from the frame about 1.5" which clears the exhaust manifold, but I have to crawl under the truck to remove the #5 spark plug. I just wanted to clean things up.
Looks like my only solution would be to flip the fixed end to the front and go from there.
Looks like this may be way too much work, so I may get serious about an IFS.
Thanks everyone for the input and education.