Yeah. I thought it worked as well, so I was surprised as hell when I found all of that in his car.
Don’t know if you recall, or even read it, but the mice packed so much stuff in the frame of his car that once it got wet (never dried, actually), it rotted-out the RH frame rail pretty badly. And since his is a RH drive car, and the steering box connects to the frame, not the K-member, the steering would have been deadly had he driven it on the street.
I thank my Guardian Angel that I pulled his engine every time I think of this, otherwise I may not have found it.