This is an ancient Franklin gearbox, with heavier shafts and lateral housings. Note that the Pitman arm is inside the cowl, with the draglink going out through the firewall. This is not to satisfy those who think a through the cowl steering setup is ugly; it's because this application is on a racecar. This is, of course, the race car. Cowl steering is used so one doesn't have to use a bunch of shafts and joints, each inviting failure, to circumvent an engine, or other gear in a tight engine compartment. Harry Miller, for example, in an effort to keep the steering mechanism inside his 1935 Indy, Miller-Ford's engine compartment; put the steering box too close to the "flatheads" exhaust manifold. One by one, Henry's (Ford was the owner) cars dropped out of the race with steering failure. "Food for thought" for you car builders who like to put those "block hugger" manifolds near those "itsy-bitzy" Vega boxes.
put the steering box too close to the "flatheads" exhaust manifold. One by one, Henry's (Ford was the owner) cars dropped out of the race with steering failure. "Food for thought" for you car builders who like to put those "block hugger" manifolds near those "itsy-bitzy" Vega boxes. Usually the vega box is low enough and forward of the headers. Ago
Most hotrods here are LHD, this makes the Land Rover perfect as a RHD box is spot on for LHD, Got one on my Willys too.
I just got rid of my Franklin and had Schroeder build me a new one. The boxes that you guys have fabricated and shown here, are absolutely great! Bless those who try to use 80 and 90 year stuff....
Thanks to all for the good info i have read alot of threads here in the past 2 days alot of info. I think the ford box may be the way i think because of my cowl on my 30 sedan being wider it seems to have a longer shaft if i am wright .
Jim the ford van box I used was originally RHD and the cowl steer car its going into is also RHD, For LHD you would need to start with a LHD box. Ford F1/100 can be altered very easily to suit your application. Also a RHD Land Rover box would work perfectly too. Heres a LR I have for my 26T, the are normally finned aluminium but I smoothed this one off a bit, the extensions are the same as on the Ford box above.
Man, Steve, even a steering box is cleaner than a surgeons toolbox after you had it in your fingers! that's why the english carnuts are known as "komplett verrückt" over here! (totally crazy ya know) Cheers, Carsten
Hi not sure if any one has tried it but early VW boxes work ok I used one in my a modified with a hand made pitman arm.
You guys that build all these bitch'n boxes, are truly inspiring. Makes me wish I hadn't misspent my youth!
Is there any other information on using these? I have heard that you do not reverse them. Is there a tech article on how they are set up? I have a 31 ply. that I'm thinking about building a high boy style out of and looking at using side cowl steering on it. If you have any other information on this I would sure Like that.
Here's one that'll provide a decent starting point to look around, there's others that'll surrender themselves to a little search-fu: http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=305256 Seems like a decent candidate for my roadster project, keep my eyes open to pick one up if one turns up at the right price. Going rate eBay, car-part.com, etc. looks to be $75-125 used. There seem to be at least two and possibly three different interchange listings for this box design, '67-71 and '72-up I think, not sure what the differences are. What would be handy is rebuilding details for this box...
The gear boxes were not nly too close, they were actually bolted to the head and became a heat sink during the race causing them to bind up!
I am running a Profile sprint car power steering box which is a 12::1 unit and use a stock Gm p/s pump. I have no problems and it works quite well. I went with it because I wanted no holes at all in the floor and I run firestone ribbed fronts on the car. ribbed fronts look good but follow every groove in the lane and you fight the wheel. with the power gear it goes just where I choose to go. I bought it used off Evil bay and had Tommy Lee freshen it up.