I know there is a clearance issue with the Fenton exhaust but I haven't seen any pics of the clearance problem area. I'm working on a 40 coupe with a 8ba FH. Steering box is a Vega. I don't have a clearance issue with the dipstick, heard that was one issue, and I don't have issue with the box hitting the exhaust. In my case the outlet flange area of the Fenton encroaches on the pitman arm. I could grind a little bit of the pitman arm away for clearance, or modify the output flange surface a bit to clear. Thought I'd run it by you folks to see what if anything you may have done in this situation.
If the drag link is not parallel with the tie rod, (I'm remembering the pitman arm being shorter than the Ford was) then you have the option of moving the Vega box and its mount 1" forward on the frame rail. I did a '46 with that problem, and the drag link was in a trapezoidal relation with the tie rod, so when I moved the box and mount forward it was ideal, as both rods were parallel. In the 1935 Indianapolis 500, Henry Ford had a gaggle of Ford Indy racers, all dropped out early because of exhaust headers too close to the steering boxes, making the hot gears grow and steering failing to turn! Clearance of exh. to steering box is perfunctory.
Move the box tighter into the frame rail. Yes, cutting, welding and painting will be required. But there is plenty of room to be gained.
I believe I'd have room moving it forward some to make the tie rods parallel. Could also move inward on the rail to open the gap from the heat as well per X38's suggestion. I'll look at both options closely.
I was wondering how close the exhaust manifold is to the steering box, looks like moving it forward might move it closer causing heat problems on the steering box. Since you are probably going to use a u-joint I think I'd look at moving the steering box toward the frame as X38 suggested.
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