another dumb ass steering question

ok i just got my column and corvair steering box mounted onto my 30 a saden.dont have the drag link hooked up yet.i turned my steering wheel all the way to the left then turned the wheel all the way to the right and counted 5 and a half full turns of the steering wheel.is that normal for a corvair steering box? so that means if i was driving straight and wanted to turn left or right i would have to turn the wheel 2 and 3/4 of a turn. it seems like a lot of turning with a car with no power steering.

 

with the steering linkage hoked up it will probaly not taken 5.5 turns lock to lock tom.

 

i'm going to run the same setup.could you post some pics or email me????

 

If your Corvair manual box took less turns to complete the lock to lock, you'd need a gym membership.

It worked on a Corvair.

 

Try it with your daily...that's pretty common. You don't turn the wheel all the way in most cases anyhow.

 

I think you'll hit the stops on the king pins first. mho

 

Yes, that many turns are correct for a Corvair box.
There was a factory "quick" box that had 3-3/4 turns. I think it was offered from late '65 on.
Flaming River has started making a replacement quick Corvair box for plenty of $s.

 

I know that this doesn't apply to your rod, but the aftermarket made special "quick ratio" steering arms for sport minded Corvair owners to quicken the action.

 

Number of turns the box is capable of (5 1/2 in this case) will have little to do with YOUR steering ratio or number of turns lock to lock. That will be depend on the relative lengths of your pitman and steering arms. Lengthening the pitman arm and/or shortening the steering arm will speed up the steering.

Keeping the ratios the same relatively as the originals on the Corvair, will give you the same number of turns as the Corvair. If your front axle car weight is the same as the Corvair donor (not very likely) and your tire size/tread band is the same (also not likely), your steering effort would be the same as that Corvair.

Generally speaking, as manual steering gets faster more effort will be required of the driver (they didn't call it armstrong for no reason). More leverage in the form of a larger diameter steering wheel helps (look at the steering wheel diameters of post WWI race cars for example, some look to be nearly two feet) as does making sure the centerline of the tire's tread is dead on the king pin axis where it intersects the ground (zero scrub). Tires with narrow tread would also be easier to turn (less friction) as would high tire pressures for the same reasons. Radial tires are loudly booed here, but they too turn easier, largely because of less rolling resistance.