My Dad and I were talking about how vintage TV shows had the driver sawing at the wheel all the time. Made us both chuckle a bit when we were out at a cruise on Saturday.
My car had a huge amount of play in the system from a variety of worn out stuff and leaky bits. Glad that’s all gone now. I did not replace the parts with OEM style stuff so I don’t want to clog up your thread. I am looking forward to how the new steering box works on your car.
Just a FYI, My 70 XR-7’s steering is fairly precise. Not as good as newer cars, but I don’t need to play with the steering wheel much to keep in on the line I’m looking for. It goes straight on level, non-rutted pavement and fairly good on poorer road surfaces. All with a factory Power Steering system that has had items rebuilt or replaced. And of cores your experance will difer.
Agree with Badcatt. The original suspension and steering on our cars weren’t fantastic, so you can certainly do better with newer higher tech components. But with the original parts all working like they should, your car shouldn’t wander or require a lot of steering correction.
The remanufactured SMB-K steering box with attached Pitman arm has arrived from Chockostang, and will purportedly be installed on Monday.
These thing is heavy! Are modern steering box cases ever made of aluminum?
Before they turned their attention to the integral power steering gearboxes, Borgeson sold remanufactured factory-style gearboxes. An article I read about them said they were built to better-than-factory tolerances with improved materials. I purchased one of these over 20 years ago and it made a significant improvement in steering precision. Not as good as the rack-and-pinion systems in my daily drivers, but quite good. It still works well.
I checked with ChatGPT if the Borgeson conversions were lighter.
The steering box is around 5 lbs lighter, but the big weight savings is the 15-20 lbs from eliminating the ram & control valve, for total weight savings of 25-30 lbs.
Aside from the steering, that’s a significant weight savings benefit.
Hello.
I’m currently in the middle of performing the Borgeson steering box conversion on my 1970 with a 351 Cleveland and FMX.
I had to remove or at least loosen the steering column to install the new box. It is much longer. I also removed brake master cylinder to remove the old box and install the new borgeson box from the top. I opted to completely remove my steering column as I wanted to strip it completely down and check the components. I am glad I did because all of the grease was long gone/dried out and I had to place an order for a few worn out components.
They are:
Bearing - Steering Column - Upper - Fixed / Tilt - Repro ~ 1967 - 1973 Mercury Cougar / 1967* - 1973 Ford Mustang SKU: 13605
Mine was completely siezed, and the inner race was cracked lots of slop in the column itself.
Upper Bearing Sleeve - Steering Column Tube - Repro ~ 1967 - 1973 Mercury Cougar / 1967 - 1973 Ford Mustang SKU: 26181
A little cover for the bearing, mine was in okay shape, but for $5, what the hell?
From NPD:
Steering Column Lower Bearing Conversion Kit, 1 Shaft Diameter SKU: 3D681-1B
I’m actually pretty excited about this lower bearing conversion kit. It requires you to lose the shift “interlock” mechanism at the end of your column, and trim a little bit of the inner column tube. But it gets rid of that plastic sleeve they call a “bearing” and actually replaces it with an actual support bearing at the end of the column.
Also, one last hurdle, the 1970 Cougar and Mustangs with a 302 (including the Boss), 351 Ceveland or Windsor (so all small block cars) use a different power steering pump than the 1967-1969 models. The big block 1970 Cougars and Mustangs still use the 1967-1969 power steering pump for some reason. The outlet for the (1970) pump is offset and is a 5/8 inverted flare female. The 1967-1969 models have the outlet right in the center of the pump and is a 5/8 flare male fitting. The hose kit Borgeson sends in the kit (P/N 925107) is for the 1967-1969 power steering pumps. I have ordered a 5/8 inverted flare to -6an adapter fitting to try and use the hoses Borgeson supplied.
So now I’m at a stand still waiting for parts.
