Hi guys,

I've had two interesting offers drop into my lap. Two separate people have offered me completely power steering setups, and I wanted to get some advice.

First part--will it fit?

Set 1: 64 Polara B-body.
Set 2: 73 Duster

Second part--is it desireable?

I have no experience with mopar power steering setups. I know a lot of folks convert to manual, but I wasnt' sure if that was a defect in the PS itself, or a quest for more space to allow for exhaust headers or the like. Can you guys give me some opinions as to what you would do?

Manual steering is fine except when I'm trying to get it around tight spaces, etc.

MJ

My advice: DON'T. Much more engine bay clutter and complexity, much heavier steering box which will only give acceptable road feel and self-centring if you buy an expensive firm-feel box, and it's totally, totally unnecessary on a lightweight '62 A-body.
See here.
As long as you only try to steer when the vehicle is actually moving forward or backwards, it's fine. It's when you try to dry-turn the wheels (with the vehicle stopped) that you'll run into difficulty.

MJ[/quote]

well my problem has been with tight spaces and the car barely moving turning in tight spaces. My main issue has been that very nice narrow, steep, gravel-laden, retaining-wall lined driveway of mine that is just damn sharp to the street and the 24:1 or whatever it is takes a hell of a lot of turns!

Thanks for the info, I'll see about changing this crap later. What are you running in yours?

MJ

My suggestion: Move to California.
20:1 (4-1/2 turns lock-to-lock) nonpower, and I love it.

How do you find parking that thing with that faster ratio box? How about panic situations? Any oversteer problems?

I talked to several places, including steer and gear (here in Columbus) and the guy recommended staying with 24:1 since he thought the 20:1s were too twitchy. It was too twitchy for my pocket book anyway, I'm just curious as to you what behaviors you like that it helped with and what you don't. He was convinced I'd dislike the tighter box steering of a 20:1

MJ

Completely non-problematic, even with my larger-than-stock P205/70R14 tires. And I'm about as far from a muscleman as they get. Really, no significant difference compared to the 24:1 box.
I avoid those, as a rule. That said, the faster the ratio, the easier it is to cope with a panic situation.
Huh? The steering box ratio doesn't induce oversteer!
Horsepuckey. The 16:1 box is too twitchy, but there's ZERO twitchiness in the 20:1 box. It's an excellent balance of an appropriate ratio to avoid twitchiness with a sensible number of turns (4-1/2) lock to lock. Going from the 24:1 to the 20:1 was one of the best driveability improvements I've made to the car, right up there with the disc brakes and E-code headlights.
Perhaps he's out of stock.

yep he was before I asked more about it he told me he was out of stock. He quoted me around $400, the same price as Firm Feel. Steer and Gear would build it for me no problem, they just didn't have it in stock and he felt that the 20:1 would make it nearly impossible to park, etc. I kinda thought it would be easier, but maybe he's worried its too sensitive?

Dan why dont you drive down and see me so I can try yours out for myself? that would be perfect. thx!



MJ

Well, three possibilities here:

1) The guy didn't have it in stock and so wanted to "steer" you towards buying something he does have in stock.

2) The guy knows what he's talking about *in general*, but has no idea what a 1962 Lancer is

3) The guy doesn't know what the héll he's talking about in general (if he's the source of the "oversteer" question, that supports this possibility).

Impossible to park? Pshaw. It's really no more difficult than with the 24:1. The change in ratio is NOT sufficient to cause excessively-stiff steering, and the small increase in effort is balanced out by the reduced number of wheel turns. It's worth noting that the '60-'61 A-bodies and the RHD export cars had a 20:1 ratio, so it's not like it was never done from the factory in these cars.

Mine's back in storage (though I did get quite a lot of work done in the last few days -- I'll try to write it up over the next few days), so I can't drive down and let you try it, but I cannot with sufficient strength praise the improvement made by the 20:1 chuck.

But I will reiterate that the 16:1 chuck is a poor idea on the street.

So if I found a 61 Lancer, it would have the 20:1 box? I have a line on a few earlier A bodies I believe so if I could find it used, maybe that would make it doable.

Is there a P/N for the 20:1 vs. 24:1?

Thx!

MJ

It would have one of two 20:1 boxes (short input shaft, long input shaft), neither of which will bolt onto anything but a '60-'61 A-body.

rats! any good news you can give me? Its not like I dont have enough crap to keep me busy until wel into 2006...but that's beside the point

MJ