After bench building all the linkages, it was time to see if they were going to actually work. But before I could do anything, I had to cut some more out of my beautiful rust free floor. I started by hacking up the cover plate:

Given how often I seem to be working on my wheelers, I wanted to makes sure that the cross member and skids plates that I come up with are easily removable for service, don’t hinder routine inspection/fluid changes, and don’t weigh 200 lbs each. So I went for a bit more of a minimalist approach this time around.

Folks that know me know that I’m not really a fan of automatic transmissions. While the 4r70w in the Mercury was one of the few that didn’t routinely irritate me, I wanted it gone. Plus I had to pull it to fix a leaking rear main seal, so I didn’t see a reason for it to go back in!

After getting the steering box in place, it was time to firm up where the front end wanted to live. It wound up being pushed farther forward than I would like it to be, and the high steer for the Tie Rod won’t work with the leafs in place, but that’s life.

Now that I have a blank slate to work with, the real fun gets to start. That fun being making a hole for a traditional steering box to fit in such a way that it won’t interfere with the oil filter adapter, keep the pitman arm from hitting the frame, and tucked up as high as it can possibly be. Easy right?