helping a buddy with his hot rod, and its time to decide what gear box were gonna use. I gotta a 40 ford box with the shaft cut off of it(used the shaft for my roadster) and im thinking we should use the box for his project since its just laying there and its free!!! box is in pretty good shape, turns prtty well ive just never driven a car with that kind of box and would like to hear some hamber's opinions..hes talking bout getting a vega box which im sure will work better but is it really worth getting since we have a free box???? thanks p.s.. if we use it, its gonna be cross steer justlike it was originally
Pull it apart before making mounts. Look at the ball bearing races that are machined into the worm gear. If those are bad, you need a worm, plus 2 bearings, and 2 outer races. Also check to see if you can adjust out every last bit of freeplay with the box cranked to exact dead center. Dead center is the one spot that has a tighter fit, if worn out gears, you can't get the freeplay to be zero. All these parts may wind up costing way more than a vega.....but I would take a nice Ford box over a repro Vega.
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