Has anyone used a Mustang, Maverick or the similar 63-81 Corvette box for a cross steer box? This would seem to give more space next to the motor as the gear portion of the box would be on top of the frame.
i use an early mustang box on my henry j as a cross steer. it has dual eliptical springs with the straight axle and the box is mounted to the inside of the frame closest to the firewall. the only issue is, i have to use a box wrench 13/16 to get one of the plugs out, because a socket and rachet won't fit between the box and the sbc motor. in a long wheel base car like a T or A, i have used them under the frame attached to the 4-bar mount as a drag link.
I used alot of those boxes. They are nice because they mount on the inside of the frame and the box itself sets on top of the frame. I also used them for drag link steering and cawl steering. When I go to the u-pull-it lot I take every one I can find.
Thanks for the replies. I know these come in a couple of ratios. I think they are 16:1 and 19:1. I think the fast box has fewer turns. What ratio would be good for a '34 Ford with a SBC?
HOT40ROD...do you reverse them for cowl steering? ModelAVette...I BELIEVE the power steering box is the faster ratio...BUT they used a slave cylinder style of power steering so the box has no hydraulic system or control valve inside...thus no control valve slop to contend with in a non-power use. Internally they would basicly be the same except for the ratios.
No I ran it out at the bottom near the frame. The car was channeled 6 inches with parallel leaf springs. work pretty good. I have also used early bronco boxes. and dodge 50 pickup boxes. The dodge 50 box is even power steering.
Biil-I think you are correct in assuming the box used with power steering is the faster one. The similar Corvette boxes were all the quick ratio. The spindle steering arms had two holes with the ones closest to the ball joint used for power steering and the other ones used for manual. The power steering setup was the slave cyl type also. Is the fast box too hard to steer with a straight axle and cross steer? The fast boxes had less turns, lock to lock. I wonder if that makes the steering twitchy?
Didn't on the Mustangs! I doubt it...but you could always compare steering arm and pitman arm lengths between the donor and the patient. You need to make sure that the steering stops on the axle are actually what will stop the steering action and not the binding of the steering box anyway! Vettes used 2 different holes? Didn't know that! The holes closer to the ball joints would make the car steer faster too. Could it have been the same ratio box with just tierod relocation to speed up the action with power assist I wonder??? HOT40ROD...Dodge 50...would that be the Dodge Minitruck...Mitsubishi made? I fabbed the Hurst style mount to put a 350 Chevy in one of those for my Bro in Law! When he hooked up the power steering to the Chevy pump he must have done something backwards as the steering started to spin back and forth until the side blew out of the box!!! He couldn't safely reach the ignition with the wheel spinning so violently! He said screw it after seeing the carnage and bought a non-power box to replace it!!! Hahaha FUN little truck though...SBC fit like a glove! Good memories...
"Vettes used 2 different holes? Didn't know that! The holes closer to the ball joints would make the car steer faster too. Could it have been the same ratio box with just tierod relocation to speed up the action with power assist I wonder???" Bill-Yes, I'm sure it was to speed up the action with PS. I guess they figured the PS would give the driver enough advantage to steer easily with the faster ratio. If the vette was originally equipped with PS the holes farthest from the ball joint were plugged. I think the plugs were lead so they could be removed if you REALLY wanted to.
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