I've been reading up on doing this swap on my 80 2WD and know the basic parts I'll need to grab from the junkyard (box, lines, 3rd crank pulley, reservoir, pump/bracket/idler assembly and the bolts) from a 79-88 2WD, but I'm not sure if I'll need the power steering shaft that connects to the box as well.

From what I've read, 2WD power steering box is the same part number (79-88), but the steering shafts might be a different length depending on the year or whether it is manual or power...79-83 vs 84-88, due to the distance to the firewall, and if I remember correctly, the 79-83 shaft length was shorter and the 84-88 was longer. Seems like some people say that they had to swap shafts or modify theirs, but then others didn't seem to have an issue and it sounds like they were able to reuse their existing shaft. Can anyone help clear that up for me and let me know if I should be concerned with the steering shaft length? Just trying to get a list together as to what I need off of what year truck before I hit the yard, which is about 3 hrs away...

Thanks in advance!

 

Why not try getting the longer ones, there shouldn't be much difference and if need be you could cut it shorter. I know on my 83' 4WD it had a 4" body lift on it with the factory steering shaft "telescoped" out with no modifications. When I took the ridiculous 4" body lift off, it was back to factory position.

What I am saying is that if your desired steering set is like mine then you should have plenty of play in the length of the shaft.

 

Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure if the shafts were telescoping or not, but if they are, I may grab the longer style lower shaft. From the parts diagram, it almost looked like the inner shaft could slide in/out of the outer shaft during assembly, but once assembled, it appears that two pins hold the male+female parts together and I figured that maybe they were designed to give in the event of a crash. If that's not the case, I should be in good shape.

 

My '80 manual steering shaft fit perfectly with a 1st gen PS box, It does telescope, but I'm not sure how effective in a crash - compared to designed collapsible shafts.