Hey guys, haven't been here for a bit. Ok, regarding the Trooper to LUV power steering conversion... I JUST got back from my local junkyard and I am excited as hell. Heres the deal... I looked at a lot of Troopers they had sitting around and realized that its pretty much (as a previous poster said) BOLT-ON! The things I noticed were this:
--Steering shaft itself on all power steering Troopers have a U joint proximal to the steering box which the LUV does not have. You could remedy this by stealing the whole steering shaft as opposed to trying to make it mate up to your steering shaft.
--Most 80's Troopers that I saw had pretty much the exact same set up with respect to components. However, spline sizes MAY be different in later years.
--The steering box is mounted to the driver-side frame with 4 bolts on the Trooper. The exciting part is that you will find that the LUV has it mounted at the same angle with the same 4 bolt pattern!
--Upon eyeball inspection it seems that the pitman arm splines on the Trooper are matching with those on the LUV. However, instead of worrying about that you can pull the whole wheel-to-wheel tie rod assembly off of the Trooper and use that.
--Finally, the power steering pump has to mount to the engine. This is the area I'm least sure about. You may have to create a bracket (not a problem for you fancy welders) or it MAY possibly bolt right on. Not entirely sure yet but as soon as I am, I will post again.
Basically, I did a lot of looking and comparing today and it seems like a power steering upgrade for the LUV using parts from an early Trooper is a VERY realistic project without having to get involved in removing/modifying too much stock suspension. I'm going to undertake this project this month. After I finish it I promise you guys a complete step-by-step article on how to do it along with a parts sheet and anything I run into along the way. Until then... find those Troopers!