Technical Borgeson gear box and 62 wagon death wooble. Need help!!

Back in the winter I bought a Borgeson Delphi 600 gear box conversion through Late Great Chevy for my 62 bel air wagon since the the factory power steering stuff was worn out and leaking fluid. Installed everything and just took it to the alignment shop. Told the shop the alignment specs that were with the gear box. The shop called back and said they could only get 0.5 degree positive caster. Specs call for 2.5 to 3.5. Camber and toe were good. Factory caster for a 62 bel air is 0.5 degree. Drove the car down the road and when I hit 45 mph the car wants to take off the right. When I steer to the left a little to counter, it starts to do a death wobble back and forth left to right. Hit the brakes and get under 45, it goes away. Car does fine when going into hard turns at 30 mph. Coil over shocks on the rear end. V8 with a powerglide. I used my factory power steering pump. Sounds like to me its in the gear box or maybe the pump is creating too much pressure? Is there some sort of centering valve in the gear box? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

First check for anything loose. Bushings, steering arms, box, idler, etc.

 

Everything was tight. I forgot to mention new ball joints, bushings and tie rod ends.

 

Any chance the alignment shop forgot to tighten the upper control arms or tie rod sleeves?

 

I would call Borgeson and see what they say. I have spoken with them at shows in the past and they have helped me several times.

 

and look for cracked mounts, try other tires and see what happens, bent wheels

 

I think I have seen a post on this somewhere in the past and if I remember correctly Borgenson is going to say you have to have at least 2-4 degrees of caster. I believe that some of the fellas over on the 348-409 forum have been thru this and may have a solution for you to get more caster.

 

If the car drove fine before it most likely has happen during the gear box change something maybe loose.Death wooble is nightmare stuff once you experince it you never forget it my old coupe did it before good luck.

 

I had a 62 Wagon that they couldn't get it to align. I had to have the frame pulled out. Over the years the frame closed up an the engine mounts. I took it to a frame shop and the pulled it out and then they could align it. I hope this sound right to you kinda hard to explane.

Jim

 

X frame cars are known for having collapsing front cross members.

 

They checked everything also.

Called friday and talked to a gentleman and he had no clue. Told him I would call back after doing some research.

Yes, I need more caster but I wouldn't think 2 degrees would cause a death wobble. On the 348-409 forum there was an individual who has a 62 bel air that did the same gear box swap and used the stock specs for alignment. He said that when he hit 70 the front end started feeling loose. I can't even make it past 45.

My car aligned up fine. From what I've found on the internet from other 62 owners is that these cars don't have any more caster than .5 degrees which is what is needed for stock gear boxes.

I also found where an individual had a pressure problem with the pump and had to get a weaker spring in the pump for the by-pass. I'm thinking its either in the pump making to much pressure or something is wrong with the box.

 

I used the Box from CPP in my 62 Impala it works great

 

Take the belt off the power steering and take a drive, that should tell you were to look! Gary

 

You did eliminate the old power steering control valve, right?

 

Your car was not designed to run that much pos caster. They were designed to run neg caster. Prob around .5 neg. Pos caster really didnt become the norm until about 1970 so you have a couple choices, 1 ( easiest) see if you can get offset upper arm shaft kits from moog, these give an extra 1 degree of camber then you can use the extra camber adjustment to gain caster instead ( any true alignment shop will know what i mean). 2 (hardest and not cheap) have a frame shop put chains around the upper arm mounts and jacks under crossmember and actually spread crossmember.
With the offset shafts your basically doing the same thing. I have heard of upper offset bushings but wouldnt use them myself.
Spreading xmember works, i have done a ton of em. Big block camaros were bad at sagging. But i bet yours isnt from sagging but from just trying to get pos caster from a car that wasnt designed to run that much.

 

I'll try it Monday.

Yes. Installed a manual piece just like the instructions said.


Does anyone know if a factory manual gear and a gear box from a power steering car is the same? Thiscar was a factory ps car and I still have the old gear box.

 

on a nova i plugged the stock holes and redrilled the upper shaft 1/2" further forward to increase caster

 

@junkyard junky Seeing as it's 10 years later and you still seem to have the car, did you end up going with tubular upper control arms to solve your problem, or what did you do?