Manual Steering Box

I have never owned a manual steering automobile but most people suggest replacing the power steering box with a manual one on electric vehicles to save power, so that is what I did. My buddy Tom and I went on a scavenger hunt to several area junk yards in search of the part. The good thing is that older S-10s (later body style) used the same mounting configuration as my truck. The bad thing is that most junk yards have already scrapped all their older S-10s.

We finally ended up finding one, although it wasn't in the condition I was hoping. It had been cut off of a vehicle at some point and was sitting in the mud for who knows how long. Against my better judgment we went ahead and purchased it. It cleaned up nicely and I don't feel any internal problems when I move it but only time will tell if this component will hold up.

Perhaps once my vehicle is operational I will devise a plan to add power steering back into it.The ugly used manual box I picked up, and this is even after I removed a lot of mud.
I scraped and ground the paint off and applied a rust protection primer.

The final part all cleaned up and painted black. Not too bad if I do say so myself, especially because this is my first time using a paint sprayer.