I posted this on the C1/2 board, but wonder if anyone here is familiar with this setup:

http://www.corvettesteering.com/55-57%20chevy.htm

This steering box has interested me for quite some time. The $675 price tag doesn't interest me that much, however. Does anyone know what the original application of this box is? I'd like to get my hands on a junkyard box to see what sort of mods are necessary to make it work, but I need to know what to look for.

 

I looked at this before in my decision process for upgradeing my C3 steering. I never got a real good feel for how it all pieced in together and the fact that is has the stock steering 12 to 1 ratio was a minus. I ended up choosing the steeriods setup. Havent installed it yet either though.

 

Fuelie,

I have been very curious about this also. It seems the two hurdles if you go the "roll your own" are the brackets to mount the box (easy) and the machining of the shaft to fit the vette manual pittmanarm (very hard for the amateur).

Please post the box model if you find out which one it is. My guess is that is a 60's era steering box. Taking that into account it may be worthwhile to buy there package when you consider the cost to rebuild the old box may be in the order of $150-$200 BEFORE the brackets and shaft machining.

Cheers,

Pete

 

Pete, I think this is more like an 80's to perhaps early 90's box. I already have power steering on both the 67 and 75. The ps on the 67 (factory) has no "feel" to it and I'm looking for that later model feel without going to the expense of the Steeroids system.

 

I have been running this steering box on my 63 for over 2 years now and about 20000 miles. We put one on my sons 73 also and he also loves it.

I installed the box and built my own brackets before Tom at Corvette steering had it kitted up. Now that he has it in a kit it would be much wiser to buy what you need from him.

The box is modern technology, (1999 up) and is 2.25 turns lock to lock with great road feel. Installation is very simple and straight forward, I have been very surprised that more people have not put the box on.

I have driven my 63 over 200000 miles and made many upgrades (overdrive trans, TPI, disc, tilt, 17 inch wheels, fiberglass spring, vintage air, cruise) If I had to choose the steering box was the best upgrade to date.

SSS

 

This is from Jim Shea

 

I was waiting for Jim to chime in, but I see he already has in a way

Jim & I have talked about that gear and how to install it. What I haven't figured out is:
1) How they make a bracket that doesn't shift the gear to the right. The Jeep gear and the C3 gear are almost identical in the position of the input shaft relative to the mounting surface. An adapter should move it to the right, which would be bad.
2) What they do with the frame rail to prevent crush when the gear is mounted....if they require new holes in the frame.

 

There is some sort of adapter plate so I assume they would use the old holes somehow.

 

I gather that the pitman arm on a manual box is different from a ps box? Well, I know the Pitman arm is different, but is the shaft on the box different from manual to ps? I was under the impression the boxes were the same.

 

Jim is correct the steering box is from 1999 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee . It is the first modern day steering gear that I know of that has a long pitman shaft , which is what we have needed for our c2 c3 corvette chassis, with the steering arms located behind the wheels.

There are 4 problems to over come when using the Jeep box, 1 the pitman shaft is larger, 2 the mounting bolt holes are in the wrong place, 3 the box is closer to the steering column, and 4 the box uses a 3/4 inch double d rag joint connection.

1. I found a pitman arm from a mid 70s cadillac and then made a bushing for the drag link joint. I have been told that the folks at Corvette steering are machining the end of the pitman shaft so the stock vette pitman arm will work.

2. I took a 1/4 inch plate and bolted it to frame with counter sunk allen head bolts in the stock holes. Then reveresed the process with shorter bolts to bolt the box to the plate.

3. On 67 and later cars the steering column will collapse back far enough to allow enough space for the longer box. On my 63 I had to cut about 1 inch off of the end of the column, and move it back in the car about a inch to make room, for the rag joint. On our 73 we just pushed the end of the column back into itself and it fit fine without moving the column back.

4. I found a rag joint half to fit the box at the junk yard and made a new rag joint to mate my rag joint half on the stock column to the double d joint half at the box. I think that the folks at Corvette steering have also solved that problem. If you don't mind the road feel Borgensen makes a combination joint that will work. The problem is that the joint is longer than a rag joint and moves the column back into the car a little more.

Like I said earlier, the new box is the best mod I have ever done to upgrade the c2 c3 suspension. If there had of been a kit I would gladly have purchased it. If the kit only cost 675.00 that is a bargin!!!!

Hope this helps, SSS

 

I too researched this to death and have planned on using the Jeep steering box on my '80 for sometime. I have a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee steering box with 10K on it for sale if anyone is interested in a do-it-yourself attempt at this. I am going to buy mine from Tom at Corvette Steering. I can use my original manual steering Pittman and center link and bolt the box in.

Tom's box is already modded and adapted to align with the steering column after a slight length adjustment of a hammer tap to the end of the column.Tom recommends installing the box and then putting the column in so you can adjust the column to the box. A universal joint is used between the two for the marriage of the box to column.

The Pittman shaft is re-sized to fit the original Pittman arm and he has the modified power steering hoses include in the price. I opted out on the hoses due to a previous purchase of the hydraboost system with those hoses already modified to include the Jeep box.

I have a nice 10K box if anyone is interested for $125 plus the ride.I'll just re-distribute this money to the Corvette Steering purchase. jim

 

Hey Prosouth, you are on the right track buying the kit, you wont be sorry. I tried the u-joint connection but you could feel every bump in the road. What is really nice about the box is how the car quits hunting all over the road. Once in awhile someone in our group who has a shark will drive my car and they can't believe how they aren't constantly making steering corrections. I always thought most of the road wander was in the rear end geometry.

Good luck SSS

 

Sounds like more than a Saturday afternoon project. Maybe the $675 kit is a pretty good deal afterall.