Hello all,
I've searched every Borgeson conversion article and forum thread I can find, but having no luck finding my certain issue. I got the entire thing installed, and when I went to connect the pitman arm to the drag link (which was an absolute bear), the pitman arm was about 3/4 in. from the bolt on the drag link. The drag link is about 1 turn away from being bottomed on the drag bar, but there is no way I can muscle it around, and there was two of us taking turns....it was tight.
So, connected by turning the wheels slightly to the left to make the pitman and bolt line up, and this is of course with the wheel centered....no big deal because I straightened it at the tie rod. So here I am, wheel centered, tires straight (as I can do in the garage), and when I turn the wheel right, I get exactly 1.5 turns right, and the wheel stops. When I turn the wheel left, I get 1.1 turns left, and the back of the steering knuckle comes in contact with a bump stop on the lower a-frame. I don't understand where I went wrong......HELP :-)

P.S., I have a black on black 78 Corvette for sale after this with a new Borgeson box

Notice the vice grip marks from cranking that drag link on.....It was incredibly tight, but no surprise judging how hard the old one was to take off....It appeared the threads had been buggered up by a previous PSCV replacement.

Believe I have the pitman on the correct direction

 

I'll take a stab at it.

Do you have the correct pitman arm. ?
Gm had different arms for p/s & manual.

That's all I got.
Good luck.
Jeff

 

I just did the install 2 weeks ago. Take the pitman arm off and center the steering box. Re-attach the pitman arm. Mine was off and did the same thing until I put the steering box dead center.
Very happy with the steering now, but of course I found more things that need fixing.
My car was original ps.
Good Luck, hope this helps.

 

I am getting ready to install one. I talked to Borgeson they said power or manual pitman doesn't matter

 

Thanks for the replies!
I know I centered the box before I installed it, but it's possible during the "in and out" of screwing with trying to line up the rag joint that I could have knocked it to one side or the other....Does it appear I have the pitman in the right direction? It seems like I do from the other pictures I can find, but want to be sure....It's facing the front of the car, and the curve is as depicted.

What's the easiest way to "re-clock" the box now? I'm thinking:
1. Disconnect pitman from drag link
2. Dis-engage set screws on steering box side of rag joint and unbolt steering column....back out steering column until clear of steering box
3. Spin input shaft far right, then come back 1.5 turns to where it got tough to spin.
4. If I find out my rag joint is no longer lined up, I guess I have to remove it and re-clock the rag joint because the box was not centered.

Does this sound right? I thought for sure I did everything right, and I was so upset when things were all cockeyed that I had to walk away the other night.....fortunately the car is in my bro-in-laws garage, and I've been able to step away with a clearer head now....ready to re-attack on Friday, but would like the most efficient way to "check" if the box is centered before going to far.

Other way I thought about checking centering of box was:
1. Disconnect pitman from drag link, and just spin wheel....if box is centered shouldn't I get 1.5 turns right, and 1.5 turns left?

It's definitely hitting that A-Frame bump stop when I go left, so gotta work that out some how...something is not aligned right.....

If you made it this far, thanks!

 

Unfortunately, I have no assistance, but I want to see what solves this, as I want to do this to mine.

 

Take the pitman arm off, turn the steering wheel lock to lock and then back to center. Attach the pitman arm and it should be in the correct position. Most likely you will have to re-clock the steering shaft.
After getting it in and all back together my steering wheel is about 4 or 5 degrees off. Rag joint has to be one or two teeth off. Will correct it shortly, but it drives fine and it's nice to get it out on nice days.
I'm with you on the walking away, best to clear your head and go back at it calmly.

 

I took my drag link to a machine shop to chase the threads. They had to order a $75 tap the correct size, only charged me $75 though. End link still went on really tight. Love the box btw...

 

Your steering wheel may have been r&r'd at some time also, maybe not quite right. Check for proper center and turn sig function.

 

Wanted to check back in.

As you all guessed, somehow during fitting the box, I had moved the input shaft, so after re-centering the box, my steering wheel was indexed about 90 right. Reset that, and the box seems straight as an arrow....In typical fashion, the darn thing wants to fight me at every step, and now I'm having problems bleeding the system.

The old pump was shot from being run without fluid when the other parts went boom earlier this year (had to get home from work). Pulled the alternator, replaced the pump, poured the fluid, cranked the wheel, fired the engine, and proceeded to do about 20 lock to locks....it never got boost.

It's been sitting for 2 days now, so I've got to go see if any air bubbles worked out. My tentative plan is as follows:
1. Hope that just letting it sit worked out some air bubbles
2. Vacuum bleed the system and hope that works :-)
3. Find Jesus and start praying
4. Pull the hose from the high pressure side, drain, and remove pressure regulator
5. See if the spring loaded plunger behind the high pressure hose is stuck
6. Roll down hill and set on fire
7. Go exchange the power steering pump again and hope for better results.

Sound about right?

 

Did you ever get the fluid issue resolved? What was the problem?

 

Thanks for asking....I all but forgot there was one.

After letting the vehicle sit for a couple of days due to other circumstances, when I returned and fired it up, everything worked perfectly after a couple twists of the wheel. If I could re-do this project, I would have not been so fast to replace the original power steering pump, as it likely had very tiny bubbles in it too.

Moral of the story....let the thing sit at least overnight before you throw money at the problem. It was a seamless process once I did that. I'm sure a vacuum bleeder would have worked just as well, I just didn't have one on hand.

Great upgrade, but not without it's install difficulties. YMMV, but thanks for the great advice here!

 

Have you had a chance to drive it yet? What performance gains did you notice? I'm thinking about upgrading to this setup and would love some user opinions on how different this is from stock.

 

Thanks. That's good to know that the bubbles will eventually work themselves out. I just installed mine yesterday, but have not fired up as the engine is not in. The reviews on the product are overwhelmingly good in favor. I attributed the install issues mainly to variations in the cars, not the steering box itself. Mine went in pretty much without a hitch, aside from having to flex the brake line components a little bit. Feels fantastic on the jack stands. Much tighter, although there still is a little bit of play. Supposedly that goes away when the engine is on and there is fluid pressure from the power steering pump.

 

Sorry I'm so late on this forum....I've been spending a lot of time on the Ford Truck Enthusiasts forum in the past 6 months as I was purchasing my first Powerstroke (Don't tell anyone).

Anyways, spent some serious wheel time in the vette a few weeks ago and I must say it's quite the upgrade. Even at high speed (85 HAHAA) it was rock solid. I did ask my alignment guy to make sure to increase the caster as noted in the installation / Borgeson threads, and since he's old school, he drove the car a few times between adjustments and said that it helped the on-center feel noticeably.

I'd do it again if I had another C3....nuff said.