Thinking about Steeroids on my 74 which already has power steering. Is it worth it. I have 17x8 wheels already. Any problems??? What do you do when the rack goes out???Who has the best price going right now??Thanks for the help.


[Modified by hgpreston, 1:58 PM 10/18/2003]

 

Is it worth it? Well... I think you can get much bang for your buck by doing other upgrades. But if you got the money to spend I think it's the best thing you can do for your steering.

 

I love the rack & pinion..
No more steering slop..

:steering: :cheers: :steering:

 

You don't mention any problems with your current steering. Don't try to fix what isn't broken. I'm of the opinion that a fully functioning stock setup is superior (of course most of them aren't fully functioning after 30 years...).

I have steeroids, but in hindsight, I would not buy it again.


[Modified by aharte, 9:45 PM 10/18/2003]

 

My current control valve is bad and I had the steering box adjusted which took alot of the slop out. I've just heard alot of people praising the Steeroids setup and I'm wondering if it would be worth it. I hate to spend over 1k and not see a noticable difference from a rebuilt stock setup. I checked the archives and a few complained about the loose feel of Steeroids which concerns me. Also I'm still wondering what happens if the Steeroids rack goes bad. I don't want to get hammered buying another Steeroids rack down the road. Thanks for all the imput. Please keep the responses coming. Even if you don't have it tell me what you've heard from people that did.

 

You will notice a difference. It feels nothing like the stock steering. The change in ratio is very obvious for example.

Whether you like the road feel or not seems to be in some dispute. Since I'm the main one who's complained in the archives, I should add that my car still has the stock caster angle. I've had so little chance to drive my car in the last year that I never got around to changing that.

The rack is available through GM parts. I think it was used in ~91 grand ams, cavaliers, and saab 93's (not sure on that).

 

If your vette is 30 years old and has the typical worn tie rod ends, idler arm, steering box, PS control valve and rag joint, you will spend a considerable amount getting back to the max performance that the OE system can deliver.

For a few hundred more, you can have a contemporary design, quick ratio, no slop, and a comfortable feel on the wheel.

IMHO, Steeroids is greatly superior to the OE design.

 

I have STEEROIDS and I am satisfied with it's performance but ever since I bought it I can't get rid of the feeling that it was WAY too expensive. We just bought one of those fancy side by side refrigerator/freezers with water and ice in the door, etc., etc. and it didn't cost as much as STEEROIDS!

 

Last I heard they where working on something to give more road feel but not sure what the status is. Something about restricting the flow to make it a touch harder to turn and give more road feedback.

 

I'm considering Steeroids as well. I'm building my '69 for AutoX and want steering that goes where I point it which seems just like what Steeroids does.

My concerns are the angle for the U-joint in the engine bay and clearance with my LS1 Crate Engine and LS6 (Z06) exhaust manifolds.

Anyone got any thoughts?

The only other option I've seen is the replacement 12:1 power steering box from corvettesteering.com but it does have the drawback of having to restore the stock components to like new.

Anyone got this unit installed?

Ryan

 

I purchased a Steeroids unit for my '68, but hadn't yet installed it yet when I bought another car, a modified/rebuilt '79. The steering on the newer car was sooo much better! It was completely rebuild with all new parts. I decided to sell the Steeroids kit and rebuild the '68 steering using all new stock parts. I also bought a new Flaming River 12:1 stock style steering box from Summit to go with it, so I now have a stock steering system with the faster ratio of a Steeriods rack. IMO, the best of both worlds.


[Modified by Flareside, 12:37 PM 10/19/2003]

 

:iagree:
by far the best upgrade ive done so far...i love it and do not really understand the "road feel" issue at all...
i would never own another C-3 without it...
as for the expense...add up the cost of replacing all of the stuff thats on there now and you will quickly see that it isnt that much more to have modern steering with far less parts to wear out and break...
check out my page on installing mine...
there are 2 or 3 decent pix there too... http://signguy.freeservers.com/photo4.html
i will NEVER go back...

 

Well, I haven't gotten my car back on the road, but just from a looks standpoint the rack and pinion is much more clean. I have my old frame sitting on a lift above my new frame now. The stock steering system is hideous compared to the simplicity of the Steeroids. It has also got to save some weight.

 

Bottom line: YES, it's worth it.

Brett :thumbs:

 

Ok guys. Since you're talking about "road feel" what do you mean? How do you describe what road feel is and how do you know if it's good or bad?

 

I recently installed Steeroids on my 79 hoping it would solve the handling problems when changing lanes on the highway and entering deep ruts on the road ( for ruts I can tell you Steeroids won't solve your problem ). Prior to this change all my parts were in very good condition and having experienced the steering system Stock(in good shape) versus Steeroids, Don't waste your money if you don't have to change every componet on your car presently. The steering box available from Corevtte Steering seems like a better choice(also cheaper) if the car is aligned with the good specs presently available from several corvette forums. That's my opinion

 

I think there are a lot of subtle bits about this that I don't think I can fully put into words. I suppose the main thing is that you should be able to accurately "feel" what angle the wheel is at just by the force you put on it. There should be enough resistance that small movements can be confidently and precisely felt. There should be enough resistance that the car doesn't feel like a toy. There should be some sense of the changing loads on the front wheels during a turn. Your hands should feel like they are directly moving the wheels side to side. My vette has none of these qualities anymore. My daily driver with recirculating ball has near perfect road feel, and no slop at 100+ mph.

I've actually never driven a rack and pinion car I've liked very much, although there have been ones that felt better than the my vette with steeroids. I have on the other hand driven a couple of very nice recirculating ball setups. There are a lot of chassis details that affect these things though. I think that either I have unusual steering tastes (I know I'm pickier than most), or steering systems are very hard to engineer properly.

 

Having done the conversion myself in my own garage, when Steeroids was developing their system....and having modded the system with help from forum guys online here, I have to say....I started out with a super tight stock system...and the biggest differance is in the tires any of us my have on the car...and that last thing is all over the map....with any given set of tires the car will react differantly over certain types of roads, and that again is all over the map.....
I suspect the stock system because of it's inherant slop in the controll valve....the system can be false triggered by wider than stock tires grabbing the road ruts, and therefore making you fight the wheel constantly...the problem is greatly accentuated by lower profile wider radial tires these cars were never originally designed for,.....with a 4-1 ratio the original steering had, you on the wheel also had 25% more leverage on the steering than with the 12-1 ratio steeroids has.....meaning less feedback right there too.....

the differanced among tires are much greater than anyone suspects....as I have owned this '72 convertible, it has progressed from a mechanically stock setup throughout, to a modern car, one area/thing at a time....and the steering was about the last major modification done....other than the tires, it's the MOST important thing you can do to the car/chassis in the way of major handling improvements...period....wether you engineer your own system or buy Steeroids....

another thing is the final alignment, obviously, and I am still playing with that....talking to Norval about that, and Pete79L82.....they know more than anyone else it seems, on this forum anyway....

GENE