Phase 1 (Disassembly) complete!
Finished removing all the power steering components, basically leaving only the steering linkage at the firewall. Little leaks and dirt saturation all over the pump and reservoir, both of which will get cleaned up, rebuilt, and new hoses. Leaning towards buying a hose crimper just to do the high pressure line myself when the time comes.
First fabrication of the project was making engine slingers. Once I pulled the p/s pump I could see where the holes are for factory slingers, but it basically mandated use of those specific genuine tools and it's a pretty lousy spot. Instead, I made a bracket to mount where the p/s pump was, and another that attaches to the motor mount bracket.
With engine supported, I could drop the subframe and spacers...clean slate!
One thing's to be said about preparing the space on a unibody vs. a framed truck...there was zero grinding or cutting involved. Everything just unbolts and that's it. I'm going to try to keep other things as bolt-on as possible. For sure, the area where the steering gear box will go will be plated and sleeved, so welding required there.
Phase 2 (Mock-up) began by dropping some plumbs and getting the axle in place. For now, I just needed to get a solid feel about how much space I'll have between the tires and the wheel well skirts. Looks like it's almost 7", but that might be a generous number. Coil springs I'm eyeballing (likely a Jeep WJ or JK spring) appear to be about 5" OD. I'll get a little more space if I run the 1" spacers I already run, and I prefer that stance overall.
Initial observations are good overall! For now, I'm using the Heim steering setup for mock-up since it's already the correct length, but it'll get chopped up a little to use the GM TREs. The JK adjustable track bar looks like it might be a really good match length-wise for the drag link, but numbers still pretty rough until I can mock up the gear box. Plenty of oil pan clearance, though I still want to move the axle forward another inch or two than shown in pics. Good clearances so far.
As for the radius arms, I've been looking into either making custom arms or using a OE set from an FJ80. I'd prefer to minimize work if I can since pretty much everything else has to be fabricated from scratch. There's a set somewhat local to me that needs some cleaning and new bushings; easy enough. Length looks to be about perfect, too. The tails should end up around where the transmission crossmember is, which will work out great building up a new crossmember for the mounts and driveshaft clearance.
Next step is to start mirroring the subframe mounting points so I have an idea of how to reattach the motor to the chassis and space for mounting provisions. Also need to pull the motor mounts, get them jigged up to make poly versions, and clean up the chassis rail where the gear box will go.