1952-59 Ford Galaxie Steering Box Interchange?

In the interest of getting rid of the death spear one-piece steering shaft I came across folks that claim the 63-64 Galaxie steering box bolts into a 55-56 frame with no modifications. Can somebody who's done this confirm this for me?
If this is true I think I can pull this off with stuff I have laying around (i.e. a junk 63 galaxie!)...

 

The only issue might be the pittman arm lining up, might require some fabrication. Give it a shot and let us know how it turns out, hope it does.

 

Borgeson shows the same box from 56-64. There's doesn't come with a pitman arm anymore IIRC as you use the original one.

 

Thanks for that reminder! I should have seen that...

I have that Borgeson box but there is no clearance to the 390 exhaust manifold so I can't (easily) use it.

I will have to dig out my Galaxie and see what the Pitman arm looks like.

 

I'm going to use a '55 T Bird box that I got cheap from a guy that put in a borgeson in his Bird, he had just rebuilt it. I plan to eventually put in electric power steering. I like manual for now. The T Bird uses the same box but has a stub shaft that is splined and then uses a sleeve that is splined it is the same diameter as the stock shaft so I'll get it machined for the smooth shaft. I'm also thinking of clocking the box and then putting in a U joint to change the angle of the shaft slightly to get rid of the "spear effect" as I want to use my original column.

If you look close at the splines you can see it is keyed as well.

 

Stock box vs Borgeson. Mine is the old version that came with a pitman arm.

 

It definitely doesn't fit with a 460.

 

This project started for me trying to fit a 460 but I gave up when a 390 came along. The first pic below is with the mounts sitting directly on the block:

The clearance to the steering box was too close for me so I stacked about 1/2" of washers between the mounts and the block and it now looks like this:

Clearance at the box:

The Borgeson is just too bulky at this area around the exhaust manifold:

If the 63-64 Galaxie box is smaller than the 56 maybe I can remove my engine mount 'spacers' and do away with the one-piece shaft. I will have to explore this once the snow melts and I can get to my parts car.

In case anybody cares, the photos above are a '69 vintage 390, a late truck bellhousing and a 17" toploader with a small block input shaft and Galaxie tailshaft. The engine mounts are stock 56 Ford Y-Block mounts. I used the crossmember and trans mount out of my Galaxie parts car as the front frame section I grafted onto my frame already had the angled braces cut out.

Thanks for all of the ideas and information that is shared here, it is an invaluable resource!