Hot Rods 57 chevy Belair, steering

I'm building a 57 chevy 4 door for street and strip and need some steering suggestions, it has the factory manual steering box now, 24,000 miles on it, and I figure with the stock ratio it's not going to react to quick. I've seen all the aftermarket stuff available and I'm not spending that much. I've seen somewhere, can't find it now, where someone put a 70's corvette I believe they called it the sector shaft in the 57 steering box to make it a closer ratio. They had to cut the column and install a U joint, has anyone heard of this? Is there any other options out there that someone has done? Someone suggested using a Cavalier rack but then I'd get into power steering and oil pan issues. With the cage in the car I figured I'd use a 14 or 15 inch steering wheel with a smaller tire on the front.

 

What type of racing?

 

just how quick are you going? I ran low 11s in my 55 with stock steering, I never felt that it was too slow. I did have a smaller steering wheel on it than original.

I seem to recall when I was playing with steering gears in the 90s that the worm on the car boxes was a lot faster than on the truck boxes, and on later car manual boxes.

 

Drag racing and it'll run low 9's and high 8's. I just want to quicken it up some so without spending a fortune I guess I can go to the shorter steering arms and the roller bearing idler arm. Everyone says the roller idler arm makes it a lot easier to steer so maybe that will help with the shorter steering arms. I've looked at vette steering box parts and finally found the post and it seems like a lot of work and expense.

 

How quick a ratio do you need to go in a straight line? 60"s rails used so much caster going straight that the wheels flopped over in the pits.I would set the front end up for more caster since the trifive is famous for having little.

 

I used the tubular upper A arms to get more caster. How much drag racing have you done and how quick have you been? When something happens, oil or antifreeze on the big end, and you get crossed up, you don't want to turn the steering wheel a 1/2 turn or more to get the car to react. I've been mid 4's in the 1/8 mile and I've run into a lot of crazy things and haven't hit the wall yet, I'd like to keep it that way.