Steering box

What steering box is in a 69 cj5 with a 225 is it still the ross or did they upgrade to something else.
Thanks Steve

 

ross box until late '71 model

 

kamel tells me the '66 to '71 V6 Ross box is a great upgrade to the early Jeeps to improve the steering. Very easy to do, and gives a great improvement. Got one you want to get rid of?

 

No I dont have one but I just bought a running 225 on ebay for $101.99 and I wanted to see what else I could canibilize from his jeep.R)
Steve

 

Its still a Ross, if you ever drive one with a saginaw, you'll change it out so fast its pitiful.

 

I scored a box of a mid 70" cj5 did they use sags then or something else.

 

The saginaw box mounts out on the front frame horn like modern Jeeps, anything built before 1972, unless modified will have a Ross cam & lever box. Anything manufactured in 1972 and later has a Saginaw recirculating ball box, to be honest you won't find much difference in the Ross boxes but compare one of the Ross boxes to a Saginaw and the difference will be night and day, literally!! The manual saginaw uses 1/2 the effort of the best Ross and does it with less turns lock to lock and the power box is way beyond that.

 

I drove Sparky's and it felt too easy.....not enough of a challenge...I'm stickin' with my sloppy Ross setup.

 

I don't know, McRuff....I just want to be able to DRIVE the thing period! I figure (hope) the late model Ross will be easy and cheap to find at the local used Jeep parts places. I've got the whole Jeep torn down, so reassembly with a different Ross box ain't no big deal. I don't really want to do the fabrication of the Saggy install this time around, maybe later I will. I want to see how the late Ross works first. I don't plan on doing the really rough off-roading that most of you guys do, the "grandpa" trails are more my style.

 

If you're not restoring her, REALLY look at Saginaw conversion ! They aren't kidding when they say night and day. I love it !

 

Well, that's just it...my '56 is so stock, so original, and so solid that I'm restoring her to new condition. Only a well-trained eye could tell the later Ross box from the original; same with 11" brakes, Pertronix ignition and 12v electrics, probably a dual-res. master cylinder too. That's why I'm going with those upgrades, they're fairly transparent yet very worthy. I don't want to do any noticeable changes just yet, and I don't really want to do the Saggy fabricating yet either. I can do that down the road if I change my mind. At least I'm aware of the possibility, and I know where to get the info on how to do it, ECJ5.com!

 

I've driven both setups -- manual saginaw and the ross V-6 box in a four cylinder.

I find them both to be about the same.

I'm always in the market for a good V-6 ross box in case anyone is swapping theirs out for a saginaw.

It's gotta be the V-6 box --4.5 inches diagonal measurement across the side plate mounting screws. 19 to one ratio.

 

I never worried about my Ross steering either. I replaced the pin and nut @ the bellcrank but that's about it. The tie rod had been changed to a one piece and that might have been why I didn't have any more trouble than I did though. Also...it's possible when this change was made the tie rod ends were also replaced.

Come to think of it...it's possible that one of the reasons that a saggy set up seems better is due to the change from the two short tie rods to one long one so it's possible that you'll see a big improvement if you just switched to a one piece tie rod and kept the Ross.

 

The big reason John is that a Saginaw box is what they call a recirculating ball or in machinist term a ball screw that is adjusted to zero backlash, and if left full with lube and designed to the right size for the job will technically never wear. The Ross is a lever with 2 metal tapered pins that are hardened and they follow the groove in the worm gear, this design is more than a 100 years old and was not even designed for steering, it was designed to transferand change motion in industry but was abandoned for heavy use more than 60 years ago as it was prone to wear and needed constant maintenence along with frequent oil changes. It worked good in cars cause it was not heavily worked as far as load and it was simple and cheap to build and was thought to last long enough.