Hey all, I am redoing a 1962 Mercury Meteor and need some folks input who are edumacated in those and Fairlanes. Here is the question. The car had power steering from the factory. As the butt backward person I am, I want to change it to manual steering to clean up the engine bay for what I am doing to the car. Ya know, get rid of all the hoses and big pump and what not. So...will a manual gearbox from a Fairlane fit? Does anyone make those nowadays or know of where I can aquire one? And do I need to make changes to the power rack? Never switched backwards before. I have had plenty of cars with manual steering and believe it or not I prefer it. Thanks in advance!!! If ive made any mistakes posting feel free to scold me, its my first time posting here.
Have you looked at the steering linkage, and figured out how the power steering works? It might be that you can just use one of these....???? https://fcrcmachine.com/rare-parts-...ersion-1961-1964-ford-mercury-vehicles-27893/
IF it's like the "M-word" power steering just lose the pump and hydraulic cylinder underneath and you got a manual steer car!.............'Maybe' swap the pitman arm ?!! These cars were built back when stuff was sooo much simpler. Don't over think it. 6sally6
You will need one of those drag link conversions like Jim links to above to replace the power steering control valve on the center link. But do shop around; Borgeson also makes one, I've seen them cheaper than the link. Fits '55-64 Ford full-size, '62-65 Fairlane/Meteor and '63-65 Falcon/Comet. The only difference in the steering gearbox is the ratio, with the power box being 'faster' (typically 14:1 vs 17:1) which will give a bit more steering effort, but preferred for better handling. On some Mercury models that's what they used for both types anyway...
You will need that replacement link. The control valve with no hydraulic pressure results in very loose steering. Mad that mistake as kid when I needed a leaking pump rebuilt. Didn’t make it 2 blocks from home before I came back.
I do tend to overthink things I haven’t messed with. Thanks all for the help. I wasn’t sure if the gearbox HAD to be changed due to ratio differences. Seems to be a lot simpler than I made it out to be. Think I have what i need to know. Thanks all.
I looked into this piece before and was going to buy it and try it. Its not super expensive but the 62 meteor is not listed and the company did not respond to me if it would work. Let ya know how it works.
As you can see from Steve’s post #4, Ford used a lot of parts across the whole line. Should be ok. Keep the old valve, original cores are getting hard to come by, it’ll be worth a few bucks to the right guy.
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