DIY PS upgrade along with moving the factory column and SW forward

[Lugnutz65]

This thread may only help a select few. There are many ways to improve comfort and add safety. This upgrade saved me a lot of money and I'm very happy with the results. I saved the cost of a new column (I have searched for a decent used manual tilt column for a long time and they are scarce in my area).

Read on if . . . .
. . . . . you want to keep the factory column and don't need or want a tilt column - at least for now.
. . . . . you plan to convert to PS and want a safer telescoping lower steering shaft.

This info will not help folks who want a tilt column.
If you plan to keep the column shifter then most of the steps I used will need to be modified so the column shifter will work properly. So if you KEEP the column shifter, you will only want to change the length of the column INSIDE the cab. That way the shifter linkage position inside the engine bay won't change.

I have a floor shifter and I deleted my column shifter. Thus I measured accordingly.

This modification was all done at the same time. I installed a 1974 PS box to the frame using a Captainfab bracket (very nice item). I used a 1974 rag joint, lower sleeve and DD lower steering shaft too. Yes, all of this has been documented elsewhere before.

I wanted to keep my 1965 steering column and SW, so I decided to move the whole column closer to the dash. So I slid the whole column 3" closer to the dash and then relocated the mounts. That meant more of the column was inside the engine bay, so I then cut 4.5" out of the center of the column sleeve as well as the inner shifter tube. That worked well because I needed some room to join the original 1965 round steering shaft to the 1974 DD shaft with a new U-joint.

So, now I was happy with the new SW position and the new column length.
The last step was to join the 1974 DD shaft to the 1965 round shaft with a new DD (female both ends) U-joint. That meant measuring and then cutting each shaft to the proper length and then taking the shafts to a machine shop. The machine shop milled the end of the round shaft to a DD shape so it would mate with the U-joint. Both steering rods also needed a hole drilled so the U-joint "though bolt" would fit.

The end result is having the SW at a more comfortable distance from my chest and shoulders. I've also upgraded to PS and a safer lower steering shaft that will collapse on impact if needed.