I recently acquired a 1980 C3 and when I test drove the car, the steering seemed a little stiff at parking lot speed and of course it got gradually better as speed increased. I did notice that the RPM's at idle was higher than I would have adjusted it and didn't give it to much thought. When I got the car home and of course the first thing I did was do a carb adjustment and lowered the idle speed. Take in mind, this is my first C3 and I did not have a clue that the car would seem like manual steering in parking lot speed! I have read many of the post about different ways of modifying the steering box, from rebuilding, drilling ETC. Now I am focusing on the Borgenson steering box. I don't have anyone close to me so I can test drive a car that has this steering box upgrade. I need to reduce the effort of steering at low speeds as my wife wants to drive this car. Have to laugh, we are in our sixties and I am hoping you guys will give me an honest insight on this conversion. First question, when you guys say that a collapse the steering shaft, are you referring to pushing the wheel away from the driver, if so, how does it effect feel of the drive. Second question, will this conversion have a significant noticeable difference in the effort to steer at parking lot speeds? I will continue my search for info on this conversion here and elsewhere. Just wanted get some honest opinions. Thanx

 

In my experience, power steering on a C3 is generally effortless even at "parking lot speed".
I'd spend some time figuring out the issue with your current setup before I threw cash at a replacement system.

 

Just to clarify when you said collapse the steering shaft. For the Borgeson steering box to fit in a C3 , the steering shaft has to be further away from the steering box (as the Borgeson is a bigger box) How this is done is to collapse the actual shaft by pushing the bottom half into the upper half .Essentially the steering column stays in the same place just the bottom shaft half disappears into the upper shaft.

Unrelated to this is that the C3 came with 2 types of columns , one that has tilt and telescopic motion for driver comfort and a base model column which is just fixed in one position .

 

I have all angles of this question covered.

My 80's power steering failed soon after I bought it, but somehow did not leak (!). I converted it to manual. It sounds like you want the opposite of this.

My 79 had stock steering that leaked. A lot at first, and then even more. I replaced all that with the Borgeson conversion (Pro-tip, buy a new steering pump at the same time). I documented some of the conversion starting at Post #20 here:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-thread-2.html
It's like a whole new car, and the best mod I've ever done to any of my cars.

The collapsing of the column occurs between the firewall and the steering box, so it does not affect the wheel position.

Here's likely the longest thread on the subject:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...n-install.html

 

I have a manual steering 1968. It steered like an old truck before the new power steering. I did the Borgeson and love it. It went from 2 handed, huge effort steering to literally 2 fingers. I had an after market column that didn't collapse so I had to cut my column shorter.
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Does your car have all the factory power steering equipment on the car and, have you checked the fluid and belt?
If the prior owner replaced any of the steering components, they may not be the correct ones and the steering arms may not be connected correctly.
I have a Borgeson unit for my 73 and you can’t go wrong with it, but if you want to keep it all original, contact Gary Ramadei (GTR1999) and he can rebuild your original steering box to better than new if you find that is where the problem is.
There are numerous threads regarding power steering, converting over from original to Borgeson and the work Gary does.
You could get information overload.

 

Thanks for the responses, I know that a new pump was installed. I cannot confirm that it is all original as I can see where the hoses are connected with helical clamps, so I am assuming some repairs have been attempted(?). This is not a numbers matching car, so I am ok with upgrading the steering box. I have noticed while driving the car, the steering feels good and responsive(drives like an Indy ), however when I hit a large bump or go over an uneven bridge, I can feel the car want to sway to one side or another and have to correct it. Kind of a Butt puckering at 75 mph. So I will have to raise it up and inspect the operation as Hammerhead Fred has suggested.

 

You might want to look at all the bushings as well.
You could have a compounded problem.
Keep searching for older threads for researching where the problem areas lie.
I can't help much as I am no expert.
Good luck.
You might want to give Van Steel a call as well.
They are suspension and steering guru's and they will help you out.
Pictures would help a bunch.

 

ppostsome pics of your system. There should be only one clamp on the low pressure return line. The rest of the hoses should be hardline with a fitting with a bit of rubber in between

 

It’s possible the PO replaced the original pump with the wrong pump or even the wrong size pulley.

 

I went the Steeroids route with my 68. The power steering system in the car worked pretty well, just leaked all over even after I rebuilt everything. The PS pump is pretty easy to rebuild. Rack and pinion steering made it so much more sharper for lack of a better term.
Good luck.

 

if the previous owner was a hotrod kind of guy, maybe its using and undersize drive pulley for more horsepower

 

This is the setup I'm converting over to which will be powering the Borgeson Box.
I will be using a stock size pulley.

 

will be finished with the trailing arm and strut rod bushing as well as new shocks for the rear here soon, then I will tackle he front steering. Here is a few pictures of what I can get to at the moment. I know the pump picture is not great, but it is a new pump. the tie rods looked to have been replaced and there is no movement in the ball joints,