So I recently got a 83 ae71 wagon, it's my first toyota and it been pretty cool so far. 

Theres a bunch of play in the steering and i haven't been able to find a rebuilt steering box, so i'm wondering what's all needed to swap the car to a rack and pinion because those seem much more available. 

http://i.imgur.com/9rhn86L.jp[/IMG]

Edited October 18, 20179 yr by almostreallygood

If it's an ae71 it should already be rack and pinion, as far as I'm aware ke70's had steering box.

huh, strange. the vin on the firewall says ae71, but it does have a 3tc in it, but i was told that was swapped in. 

but anyway, if i got a rack, tie rods, and steering column will it all bolt in? 

I thibk you will need the crossmember as well to bolt the rack too.

which should already be in there if it is an AE71.....  Look for captive nuts or bolt holes on the back of the crossmember in the car. It will have extensions welded on the back edge to take the rack mount bolts.

Could the reason the steering has been changed in the first place is to provide clearances for the bigger 3t engine?Just an idea.

On 10/20/2017 at 1:29 AM, altezzaclub said:

which should already be in there if it is an AE71.....  Look for captive nuts or bolt holes on the back of the crossmember in the car. It will have extensions welded on the back edge to take the rack mount bolts.

thanks for that info! ill check out later!

So it looks like I have a ke70 crossmember too... wish I knew the story of why all this was swapped in lol. but anyway, I figure it would be pretty hard to find an ae71 crossmember. could I make brackets to hold a rack to the ke70 crossmember? or are they too different for that to really work

I'd be thinking it has a TE72 crossmember actually.  That was setup for a 3T direct from the factory.

If I were you, I'd be finding an AE71 front end and modifying the engine mounts as required to fit the 3T to that.