I was wondering if anyone has used the available rebuild kits for the power steering ram and cylinder for C3's. How good are they? What issues should I expect when rebuilding these parts and is it worth it to rebuild or should I purchase a remanufactured parts. my 73 is very original so I would prefer to rebuild rather than replace. Any advise would be helpful.

 

Your call Tex, but after fitting a Borgeson integral power steering box to my '74 coupe, the car was so much more pleasant to drive. With the tighter ratio, corners were much more friendly, with fewer turns of the wheel to get round them. Sure, it is not stock, and any serious Corvette owner should be able to pick it, but 99% of all other car enthusiasts would not know the difference. And you can always convert it to stock if you really wanted to. The only non-reversible modification is the breaking of the little plastic pins in the collapsible part of the shaft, but no-one ever sees them with the column in the car.

The cost of a Borgeson conversion will likely cost you less money than reconditioning your ram, CV and steering box with four new hoses.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn

 

I rebuilt mine with the kits offered by our forum support vendors. No leaks. Used the Willcox video as reference and took pictures.

Also do a search for the papers from Jim Shea to give you additional information.

 

I used the cheap kits from autozone. no leaks, but it's only been 6 months or so...worth it? it is for me, since I can verify the condition of parts and ensure it is re-assembled properly and to my level of quality. off the shelf parts can sometimes be a gamble. but then I have a lift and a fully equipped shop, so re-doing it isn't a big deal for me...YMMV

 

Rebuilding the valve is easy, here is a video that'll help you.



Rebuilding the cylinder is not hard but in most cases it will not last.

If you look at the old cylinder you'll see that the shaft is chrome plated and this same shaft will become scored "on center". You can usually look at the shaft and see a darker area in the middle where the seal has cut into the chrome. If you see this don’t waste your time rebuilding, buy new. A new seal will stop the leak until the score in the shaft wears out the new one.

If you look at the picture below you'll see the score in the rod between the 6.25 and 6.5" mark on the tape.

Willcox

 

This statement was a bit surprising to me. I'm not disputing it. I have no idea. I'm trying to get up the nerve to tear into my steering and front suspension and I think I would love to have the Borgenson. But my thought process has been that the original steering refreshed and the front end rebuilt would be a good starting point and less expensive and if that didn't take care of my handling issues then I could look at adding the borg.

I haven't done a lot of reading about rebuilding the steering but I don't recall the ram, CV and hoses being that expensive. Is it likely that I would need to have the box rebuilt and is that where most of the cost is? Someone mentioned somewhere about a steering troubleshooting thread. I haven't searched yet but does anyone have a link handy?

I got under the car today to try to clean some of the gunk off the CV, ram and hoses to see if I can see if and where any of them are leaking.

sorry if this is considered a hijack.

 

The only replaceable parts on the cylinder/ram unit are the outboard seal pack and the ball joint at the other end. Basically, if the cylinder worked when you removed it AND the piston rod is not scored/scratched up/bent/damaged, you can reuse it. The main piston seals are INSIDE and inaccessible.

I have changed the outer seal pack with the [inexpensive] aftermarket kit and it has worked fine for over 5 years. I did not need to replace the ball-stud, but I would think replacing that would be relatively easy, also.

You didn't ask specifically about the control valve, but I've used the vendor kits to rebuild mine and had no problems. When rebuilding either unit, the MOST IMPORTANT thing is to carefully place the parts in order and with same orientation as you are disassembling it. Order and orientation are critical to successful rebuild (as is careful cleaning of all the parts).

 

arklacat, Some good question you ask. Now, up front, I have been selling Borgeson steering boxes for over six years in Australia with nothing but happy customers. Sure, I've had one warranty claim (a leaky seal) but all was fixed under warranty. You see, the trouble with the old system is that you have a MANUAL steering box with 16:1 ratio or about four turns LTL with an add-on power ram that has full pressure (i.e.boost) all the time the engine is running. I think it was Cadillac in the late fifties that came out with the Saginaw integral power steering box that combined the ram and control valve into the steering box.

This box filtered down into Oldsmobile, Buick, Pontiac and finally Chevrolet in the 1965 model year. Hey, even the Australian assembled (from Canadian built parts) 1965 right hand drive Chevrolets and Pontiacs had the Saginaw 800 Series integral power box in the 1965 model year.

But not the Corvette!!! The crappy "power assist" system stayed with Corvette until the rack-and-pinion C4 Corvette came out in 1983. Now, if every GM division went to an integral power box in 1965, and Mustang in 1971, surely it must be a better system. And it is!

We all want our cars to not only look good, but handle well, too. That's why we put far superior (compared to cross-ply) radial ply tyres on our cars. Although the factory four wheel discs are light years ahead of other 1965 cars, companies like Wilwood make even better brakes for C2 and C3 Vettes.

Companies like Bilstein make far superior dampers compared to those offered fifty years ago, and many of us buy them. All to make our sports cars handle like, er, sports cars. But many of us still put up with the ancient and inefficient add-on power assist steering as if it is somehow sacrilege to alter it. Why?

Borgeson has designed a retrofit modern Delphi 600 Series integral power steering box that bolts straight into a '63-'82 Corvette with minimal modification. Just like your modern DD, it has proportional boost so that the steering is not light and floating at speed, yet gives full boost-assist when parking or handling tight corners. Added to that, there are only 2.7 turns LTL, which makes driving on winding roads a lot more pleasant than with the factory system, or no power assist at all.

I have two 1974 Corvettes, a convertible with a good running factory power system and a coupe with a Borgeson box fitted. The difference driving them is quite noticeable and I offer a drive of each to any of my potential customers who are on the fence about whether to upgrade. One drive of each is usually enough to seal the deal.

So, see if you can score a drive of a Borgeson equipped car and you will notice the difference. Then weigh up the cost of conversion compared to paying someone to rebuild your CV, ram and manual steering box, plus four new hoses. Even if the rebuild comes out cheaper, you will still be left with a power system that was abandoned by GM in 1965 on ALL of their other vehicles.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn

 

thanks john. Nice write up. but you didn't have to sell me. I definately want the Borg system but I want the front end rebuild too and to me that's a higher priority. I will not be paying someone to rebuild my system, I will do it myself (just not sure I'm confident in my ability to do so.) If it ends up the box needs rebuilding I will have to decide where to go from that point. (my car has less that 61k on it.)

 

[QUOTE=aussiejohn;1591122453]Your call Tex, but after fitting a Borgeson integral power steering box to my '74 coupe, the car was so much more pleasant to drive. With the tighter ratio, corners were much more friendly, with fewer turns of the wheel to get round them. Sure, it is not stock, and any serious Corvette owner should be able to pick it, but 99% of all other car enthusiasts would not know the difference. And you can always convert it to stock if you really wanted to. The only non-reversible modification is the breaking of the little plastic pins in the collapsible part of the shaft, but no-one ever sees them with the column in the car.

The cost of a Borgeson conversion will likely cost you less money than reconditioning your ram, CV and steering box with four new hoses.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn[/QUOTE


Thanks for the info aussie, I really would like to stick with the original parts if at all possible. The car has 15k original miles and i dont think the parts will be too worn but i will look for wear and see how they look when unassembled.

 

Thanks vettez73 I will watch the Wilcox video and see what I can do. Are the Jim Shea papers on the Forum?

 

Thanks for the video I will look for warn parts for sure, with only 15k miles I hope they wont be worn too badly but like I said I will check it out.

 

Thanks for the info I too was going to rebuild the control valve I think I called it the cylinder but I think its really the control valve. It sounds like it is not too hard to do but as you say everything back together as it came apart is the way to do it. I'm gonna give it a shot and see what happens. Thanks again