| I hope this pictorial of the various Toyota steering set-ups, stock and custom, makes it easier to visualize what people are talking about when they discuss crossover steering, etc. The is a stock solid axle steering box from an 85 or earlier truck. The pitman arm hangs straight down and moves forward and back... |  |
| ...pushing the drag link forward and back which in turn moves the boomerang shaped steering arm forward and back and turning the driver's-side tire side to side. The steering arm curves around the shock body and is bolted to the top of the knuckle. On the front side of the steering arm is an appendage where the tie rod mounts. At the bottom of this picture you can see the tie rod that connects the drivers side steering arm to the passenger's side steering arm ensuring that they turn in unison. AllPro has a pic of a broken stock driver side steering arm that might make this description clearer. |  |
| This is the steering arm from the other side of the shock. The tie rod is hidden by the axle in this view. |  |
| This is a stock IFS steering box on an IFS truck. Notice how the pitman arm points up and back. Turning the steering wheel moves the pitman arm from side to side. |  |
| This is a stock IFS steering box on an IFS truck after a solid axle conversion. It is set up with Hi-Steer crossover steering. The custom pitman arm is designed to hug the frame rail more tightly than the stock pitman arm, keeping it out of the way of the solid axle and springs during articulation. This pitman arm is also designed to use a heim joint and capture it in double shear. |  |
| From the front you can see how the back and forth movement of the IFS box pitman arm works in conjunction with a drag link that crosses over to the passenger's side steering arm to move the wheels side to side. With both the drag link and tie rod above the leaf springs, this is an example of hi-steer crossover steering. This truck also has a u-bolt flip kit installed unlike the stock solid axle truck pictured above. |  |
| This is an IFS box installed on a solid axle truck in order to convert the stock solid axle steering to crossover steering. The image was graciously provided by Mike Fox. The frame rail is sometimes strengthened before mounting the IFS box, although Mike reports "I haven't reinforced the box area and have had no problems. Been running this for 2 year and lots of trailtime." All-Pro has a weld on kit available for $109 ). This set-up is using a stock style pitman arm supplied by Marlin set up for a tierod end rather than a heim joint. |  |
| Two different steering boxes were used on the IFS trucks. The box on the left is from 86 & 87 while the box on the right was used from 88 through 95. There are a few distinguishing characteristics. The casting for the 86-87 box is smoother looking overall with fewer bumps and lumps and it has a lock ring around the steering input shaft. The bolt-on casting that supports the input shaft also protrudes about an inch less than the one on the later box but in all other aspects they are functionally identical. The input shaft and sector shaft have identical dimensions and spline counts so both boxes can use the same pitman arm and, if there is enough slip to accommodate the different lengths, steering shafts. The mounting flanges are also identical so either box will bolt-up in place of the other. |  |
