did some work today on the power steering conversion. currently it has the manual steering, and I have all the stuff from the 1977 Granada, so I thought i would see what it would take to make it work. It is not a straight bolt in, although pretty close. keep in mind, I am only dry fitting the parts. I will have to take it all back out IF I can make it work. that is still unknown. here is some pics.
after removing the stock steering gear box, I found i had to grind off the corner of the Granada box to allow it to fit, One of the three mounting holes on the frame will have to be elongated about 1/8 to line up.
the Granda box is on the left.
this is the edge i had to grind to make some clearance.
now bolted in, you can see how close it is.
then i installed the ram cyl, center link, idler arm (which bolts right in) the left inner outer tie rods. I found that the right side tie rod is off set about 2" inboard as you can see by my center line mark on the center link.
it is too long. so if you look real close just below the frame(left side of picture), you can see where i cut out 2" and re-welded it just to see if it would work. and now it all lines up really close. at least close enough to continue. I am using ALL Granada power steering parts and linkages.
in this pic you can see the orriginal linkage on the floor. I kept it there to use as a referance as I installed the Granada linkage.
just a note about welding the tie rod. yes, I am a welder and have been welding for over 20 years. I did this as a test, not as a permanate fix. if it all looks like it will work, I will buy new inner and outer tie rods and machine one shorter, not weld it. true, it could be welded and be safe by adding an outside collar after it is all welded and ground, and it would be plenty strong enough, but why risk it?
