Steering column swap

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Hello everyone

I have a question for my knowledge to ask you guys

If one day I buy a 66 b body, knowing that I have right now a 69 b body, will it be possible to put the 66 steering shaft into the 69 steering column? I'm going to explain why I am asking you that.
Now I know that steering column changed with the 67 models with the opening on it for "safety". But are the internal parts the same?

I ask you that because (I'll try to be clear which will not be easy lol) If I buy a 66 b body with power steering, the steering shaft is shorter than a non PS steering shaft (correct me if I'm wrong) and on the bird we are restoring we do have a manual steering but changing to a rack and pinion so we are going to need to cut the length of the steering shaft.
Also we have a completely new manual steering box taking up dust in the garage. My idea was like we have this fresh manual unit, can I put it on the 66 b body requiring a longer shaft that I can take from my 69 bird and use the shorter one for the 69 as I have to shorten it for the rack and pinion....

And then the 66 b body will be convert to a manual steering (I prefer manual steering) with a 69 manual steering shaft, and the 69 bird will get the 66 steering shaft that will be shorten for the rack and pinion.
So we can use the manual steering box.

I'm asking you that tricky question because I'm currently looking for a 66 b-body and if I found it and I like everything with the car except that it has PS I don't want to let it go just because of the PS. If I can do that conversion to a Manual steering then it will widen up my field of research.

Sorry for my English and hope I was clear ;)

Have a good one!

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Votre probleme es simple...mais je ne sais pas l'anseur. Your plan makes complete sense to me, but I don't know the answer. One way to figure it out is to search for steering shafts online for both 66 & 69 and see if the same part number(s) comes up.....I'm just not sure if anything changed on the steering shaft??? At some point, the steering shafts became collapsible & slide in together like an antennae....just not sure what year that happened. That's all I know.

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Votre probleme es simple...mais je ne sais pas l'anseur. Your plan makes complete sense to me, but I don't know the answer. One way to figure it out is to search for steering shafts online for both 66 & 69 and see if the same part number(s) comes up.....I'm just not sure if anything changed on the steering shaft??? At some point, the steering shafts became collapsible & slide in together like an antennae....just not sure what year that happened. That's all I know.

Thank you sir for that, I'll do some research then to see if I can find out the part numbers like you suggested.
And thank you for the effort with the french words ;)

If it is not a problem in a way that by doing some investigation on the forum I found out that Mancini racing has an adapter to convert PS to manual that goes on the steering shaft.

So in the "worst case" I have that solution to my problem ;)