Howdy all,

 

First post for me. I've got a '72 ke20, that is in need of a new steering box, or a rebuild kit. I honestly have spent the last 3 days searching the googles, and can not find a standard replacement part. Closest I get is a rebuilt for a '71 Celica. Visually, the Celica part looks to be the same bolt pattern & approximate size as the Corolla one. Any one know if it's compatible?

 

I'm in the U.S. so it's a "lefty" set up. I know the first suggestion(s) will be to convert to power steering, but I just want to keep things simple and stay with the manual box.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hey Mate,

I'm no expert, but one of the things I've seen done and am looking into doing for my car is an first gen AW11 MR2 steering Rack (same as an ae86 quick rack I believe), mounted to existing crossmember, and KP Starlet universal joint and column internals (which match KE2X columns). I believe the outer arms were also KP Starlet but I am yet to look into that further.......hopefully that helps in for future research......

I've done some research on the rack setup and it looks like a lot of work but I'm thinking of doing it.

It's a good question that I doubt anyone has looked at. I've never seen reconditioned steering boxes readily available in Australia, and I know when I tried to source the various seals and so on, virtually nothing was available genuine.

 

If it does fit, it would be interesting to know if the pitman arm mount would bolt up to the TA22 box I suppose, or it may be a deal breaker.

Hmmm try a suspension rebuild shop, at least they may know or have a catalogue for rebuild kits. Not sure on the "Lefty" steering boxes, maybe try ask brdracing.com

A great improvement to a steering box is rack and pinion, the good news is it has been done on ke2x with success, the bad news is that it's a fair bit of work.

Indeed. A lot of work to get it right

 

http://www.toymods.org.au/forums/threads/57054-KE20-25-Rack-and-Pinion-Conversion-Guide-Driving-well-in-my-car!?highlight=ke25+rack+pinion

The problem us lefties run into is the box is on the same side as the exhaust and starter motor and it's really crowded. My plan is to sneak into the Toyo Museum and swap parts out with the display model, it should have about a million miles less than mine does.