I have Camaro sub on my 47 chevy, it has a 700 Power Steering front steer box. It is worn out after 110k that I put on it and I have no idea how many miles the donor car had on it. Who makes these new or who rebuilds them? Do I have any other choices as to using some other box? Is there a rack & Pinion kit available for this front end? BB
Bob, depending on the year camaro- if you have a 67- 81 subframe get a box for a z-28 or trans am. i know the mid- late seventies ones (possibly earlier also) were quick ratio boxes. i personally put one from an 81 T/A in a 68 camaro and only had to adapt the hose end for the correct thread/fitting. bolt right up otherwise. i supose if you couldnt get it a real parts store(napa etc)year one is probably making them. be careful if you do switch to a quick ratio,the first time out of the driveway i almost put the car in the ditch it was so different, but really nice once i got used to it.
I have new boxes or a r&p kit at Flaming River. I personally like our boxes, used them before I worked there on several Chevelles and Camaros. Have 4 ratios available.
i personally would get it rebuilt. I had the same issue and it took 3 tries at the parts storew to get the correct one as I wasn't completely sure of the year.
Go spelunk around pro-touring.com, massive amounts of second-gen Camaro stuff there. Short answer to your question: you can have a 700/800 box built with a 33-35oz Z28/WS6 Trans-Am spool valve, or anything softer if you want pinkie-finger steering, or you can put in a 600/670 series box which is the latest and greatest and has even better valving and are available in a bolt-in configuration for the Camaro subframe. Take your pick of ratios, 12.7:1 (IMO 2.1 turns lock-to-lock is too fast for a big chubby car), 14:1, 16:1 (3 turns, would be my choice) etc. I'd call Lee Mfg (http://www.lee-powersteering.com) Rack conversions might be possible but most of the rack setups involve probably more subframe modification than you want to bother with and with a tighter box the gain is likely to be trivial anyway.
Micky, I can't get to my storage until Saturday to count the teeth on that spline, I'll call you monday. Thanks BB
Bob- the close ratio units will almost ALWAYS have a different size or spline count at the box. however, it is as easy as changing out the rag joint's bottom half. I installed a 78 Trans am box in my cutlass years ago (same box, no fab work at all) and that bad boy makes driving even more fun. all I had to do was adapt the lower half of the rag to the "more modern" smaller set up. if you wanted to get all fancy about it, borgeson makes a universal joint that will bolt to the box, and the end of your steering shaft. shoot us a pic of the joint when you see her next! Cheers! Lux
There is lots of stuff availiable. Check on camaro.net or team camaro. Lots of info there. I would stay away from the rack kits.
What is your reasoning there? I have one on my 62 Vette and it was the single best thing I have ever done to that car, Positive steering without any constant correction needed to keep it in a straight line on wavy roads, no bump steer at all. Parks easily. I can't think of a single bad point about it with the exception that it ain't original. BB
'62 'Vettes had fairly crappy front suspension and steering. 'Vette power steering up until the C4 in '84 was a lousy antique bit of linkage-boosted nonsense. Second-gen Camaros have a pretty good front end and a very good front-steer configuration with the excellent Saginaw rotary box. The thing about those Saginaw 700/800 boxes is that they're available in a range of ratios and assist levels. So a box with a pinky-finger Buick spool valve and a box with a 35oz WS6 Trans-Am spool valve look exactly the same, but they sure as hell don't feel the same in the car. A good rebuilder can set up the box to do exactly what you want it to. The newer Saginaw/Delphi 670 boxes have even better/tighter valving, and are available as a bolt-in for that application, so if you can do the 33 or 35oz spool on the earlier box cheap it's good, but it's not worth spending big money on the earlier box for a lot of applications these days. There may be good rack setups out there, I'm not that familiar with everything on the market - what I look for above all is an OE level of durability and noise/shock isolation - but in most of those later GM applications it's going to be a small improvement at most.
That works good if they are just leaking but Bob's sounds worn out to the point where it is getting pretty sloppy and it will take new internals. He'll put more miles on that car in a month than some guys who claim drive their car a lot will in a year or more.
Bob This is just my eexperience so take it with a grain of salt. Most racks that you can buy are designed for lighter cars and they don't seem to hold up well in a heavier car. I suppose if you go to a specialty builder and get a rack built for a heavier car it is an entirely different story. I like GMs front steer boxes, you can do a search on a catalog speed shop site and find a replacement for the box. I would snag the numbers off of it and go from there. With the number of the box you can go to any NAPA or reputable parts store and find out what year range Chevrolet that box came off of.
The hot ticket is to use an S10 steering box with a quicker ratio. The S10 box is identical to the Camaro box, but you'll need to reuse your steering arm on the S10 box. I swapped out my box on my OT '71 Camaro to a S10 box, and it's been done by a lot of Camaro owners.
Are those different from the rear ones or do they use the same one at both ends? ...sorry couldn't resist.
Bob, I'm running a 70-81 front-steer camaro or firebird subframe in my 57 pickup. I bought a new(or rebuilt) power steering box from Speedway last year. I think it was about $180.00. Sam
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