kolsen911

Is there an upgrade to the stock steering in my 65 roadster?
It has power steering, with my heavy "Hemi" but I thought I saw some posts about an upgrade?

Bluestripe67

Since you have a very unusual engine install, I don't know if the Borgeson box conversion or the Steeroids rack would work. Maybe someone else has something in mind. Dennis

Mikado463

agreed Dennis, I met a fella who has the 'Steeriods' set up on his '65, loves it.

hope2

I have a used Flaming River Rack and Pinion power steering kit. Just bought from forum member, haven't opened box. Decided not to use it. It will fit your car, not sure about engine clearance.

63 340HP

The Borgeson power steering box is only slightly larger than the factory manual box.

The concerns are header clearance, the pump and brackets, and steering column.

Header clearance with the Hemi is unknown territory. If you have a good one inch clear around the manual box, you SHOULD be good.

The pump, pulleys, and brackets are likely to be Hemi factory items. DeSoto or Chrysler vintage parts. Borgeson can probably match a Chrysler style pump to provide the pressure.

The steering column shaft needs to be one inch shorter, because the steering box is one inch longer. I used an Ididit tilt column, with the shaft cut. This also helped me use a smaller 14 inch steering wheel (more hip & head room ).

I let a friend drive my car on Friday who had not driven it for years, from when it was stock manual steering. He normally drives a 01' C5 roadster, so he has a modern benchmark to reference. He was pleasantly surprised. His comment was why didn't I do the steering years ago, and that the results totally improved the feel. A skinny lightweight GoKart, compared to how his C5 feels. It is the best driving feel upgrade available.

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kolsen911

When I get back home from Arizona and the car comes out of the shop I'll look it over. It does have power steering but I don't think it's rack/pinion because even after I tightened up the steering box it still wanders and isn't precise like anything else.

SWCDuke

A properly rebuilt steering gear and linkage will solve the problem. These systems do show wear after a half-century of use... same for the ball joints and suspension bushings.

Duke