this is my first post here, and I'm Canadian, so go easy eh?
I have an HJ47, by way of Australia, that I imported last year, then stripped completely apart, and now have converted to LHD. I picked up a Brazillian ZF Bandeirante power steering box and have installed a 60 series tilt-head column. Work is progressing fairly well, but one thing I'm trying to sort out is the steering gear from the steering box on down. I thought about going to the 60 steering box and that type of system for a while, but decided to go with the factory 40 system, notwithstanding it's flaws. I would like to beef it up a bit however, and notice that almost all subsequent series cruisers have beefier TRE's and rods. That's what I want to have.
I put 60 discs on the front and have left the 60 knuckle arms in place, so fitting the 40 tie rod means conical shims at a minimum - but I'd rather not use the 40 stuff at all. Someone up here suggested that I could put in 70 series rods and TRE's, and I thought that the chances were good that someone in Oz has done this conversion. So, what's the deal? The 70 stuff is only a couple of cm longer than the 40, so I'm thinking it may well go in with minimal modification (hah! famous last words that one!). However, questions come up when it comes to dealing with the steering damper attachment and the pivot arm unit which is sized for 40 series TRE's.
So what's the best way to go about this - any suggestions or advice would be most appreciated.
