Hi Guy's
Well the time has finally come to pull the trigger on the Borgeson conversion for my 76 Stingray, most of the reading I have done say's these things transform the old steering, I am hoping to get rid of the old non responsive feel and get a more modern feel to it, especially with the new cam and some engine mods going in around September.
Who out there has done the swap and how did you find it??

 

I did it on my 76.Well worth it,improved steering and no leaks.Not night and day diff but noticeable.

 

did it on my 71, fantastic feel and handling. It's an F41 car.

Check my old posts for info if needed. Start soaking the lower end of the steering column with WD or CRC / Freeze off/

 

thanks mate I will search and read up,

 

Does your car have headers?

It's great you are going to tighten up your car's steering. Overall yer shortest, easiest and probably cheapest path to getting really good steering is to rebuild the existing worn steering box and system you have. And it'll be tighter. The Borgesson you end up with a dog-leg of hokey u-joints ...so it isn't a magic bullet. My buddy just did one on a T-bird and it's marginally tighter. Just search these threads by guys who've done the conversion. Not trying to dissuade you, just cluing you in.

The original steering was very tight and responsive on these corvettes. A proper manual steering box will actually be tighter than a Saginaw-type power steering box b/c a power steering box, uses a two-piece shaft and there's a little 'free-play' built into in the input shaft. That free-play acts as the 'valve' (which ports fluid pressure one way or the other). That's why they didn't put power steering boxes on sports cars, and why Zorba never put a saginaw power steering box in the Corvette when they certainly could have. Or any sports car. In stock C2/C3 form, you have the benefit/responsiveness of manual steering on the highway, and lightness of power steering at slower speeds. The power steering boxes are great on a full-size car or a truck. Borgeson is a saginaw-style box.

Most lower leaks are caused by worn steering ram 'rods'. The chrome (or the rod) gets chips in it from road debris, or the chrome wears at the centerpoint, where most wear occurs. And then the seal leaks. Your parts are probably all old and worn out. Easy to rebuild or replace that.

The Manual steering boxes on C2/C3 cars was known to need to be re-calibrated after 25-30k miles back in the day. But nobody does it. Ya have to put on the bench to do it 'right'. The famed racer John Greenwood points out in the older magazines how he would re-set the power steering box after every race. Of course that's severe-duty application, but he points out that its' the single biggest thing a guy can do to keep a corvette 'tight'. It's not difficult to rebuild a manual steering box. And I believe Autozon rents an inch/lbs wrench. But you really don't need one.. the specs are really wide. There are a couple "pro's" who rebuild them on this forum which make it almost not worth doing yourelf (when ya factor in your time). But it's educational to do ...if you're into learning.

But whatever route you go, it'll be a lot more pleasureable to drive with tighter steering. Best of luck

 

It's one of the best mods I've done to my Corvette.

 

It's one of those modifications that some really love and some don't.
A good thread on here about how they can be modified to have better feel. Which does sound like the ultimate solution. But it's an expensive option.
I'm extremely happy with the factory PS . I rebuilt my box myself, and it probably really didn't need a rebuild. But after 46 years I thought it was good maintenance. It did make a difference.
I tried a replacement control valve at one point. Had it on the car for about a month. It was truly horrible! Induced freeplay at the wheel when straight ahead.
I put the original valve back on!
My personal opinion is that a lot of these cars have replacement parts on them of sub standard quality.
And thus many concider the stock system lacking.
I am fortunate that I have owned my car for so long and know of every replacement part and modification on my car.
I'll keep mine factory stock.

 

I converted my wife's 79 to Borgeson. It totally transformed the car for the better.

I converted my 80 to manual steering. Also a huge improvement.

If I were to Auto-X the 80, or needed to parallel park, ever, I'd convert that to Borgeson as well.

Here's one of the longest running Borgeson threads.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...n-install.html

 

Ordered it through Summit along with the Ridetech bracket. I'm a novice mechanic and it took me 3 or 4 days. I also sanded, cleaned and painted parts as they were removed. I managed to roll onto my cell phone and break it. So I did the install without the help of the internet.

I was off by a spline or two and had to take it all apart. I wire brushed and filed the steering column 46 spline grooves to make the Borgeson parts work. Used a Dremel to sand a flat spot on the steering column. A paint marker is your friend when lining up the column to pump.

$14 Pitman arm puller from Harber Freight. $10 1 5/16" socket from Amazon. Red locktite on all your hardware. Low pressure hose had a kink (short), i cut the crimp off and got a 12" longer hose from Advance Auto. Collapsing the column was difficult. A hammer with a block off wood did not work. I soaked the column at firewall overnight with PB Blaster. I used a hardwood floor rubber mallet (heavy weight) and it finally budged. Moved it about 2".

 

Just finished the install today on my wife 77. She noticed the difference backing up and turning off the ramps. Pulling out our driveway was effortless. Going in high speed turns at 60 - 70 mph were smooth and steady. Straight roads weren't like sawing a tree down. Yeah, it's worth it.

 

Collapsing the column can someone explain to me what's this all about

 

The steering columns in our cars are designed to collapse in the event of a bad accident. So you don't get a steering column through your heart.
The Borgeson unit will not fit unless you partially collapse the column.